Ashes 2013/14

[pooligan]

Hell, how i sometimes wish i did not eat,sleep and dream cricket and football .After having to witness my football  team give spineless performances ,i then have to watch my cricket team  do the same .My father has a lot to answer for !

[eastie]

Another total hammering - bowled out in less than 32 overs - humiliating in the extreme - thank god this series is over !

[eastie]

Interesting to hear vaughan saying how ashamed he felt as today for the first time in his life he saw an England side 'throw in the towel ' - how sad.

Well done wombat you old rascal, enjoy your win - we WILL be back !

[Villan For Life]

Time to lock the thread I can't take anymore.

[PaulWinch again]

As bad as anything England have ever produced, absolutely pathetic. Stokes is the only highlight. Very strange that Flower specifically talked about Finn in the post match interview, the only player not to play. We need a change on personnel and philosophy.

[eastie]

Cook was adamant on interview that he and flower are the men to put things right - lets hope so but it will be a big job and they need to be strong in their leadership .

[Richard]

And to think I actually stayed up to watch that ! It's like some kind of morbid fascination similar to turning up to VP next Monday 

[paul_e]

Happy with Stokes, Happy with Broad (who even had the right attitude with the bat in this last test) struggling to be happy about anything else.

As a key we need Cook to start looking like a capable international opener again, he's been largely poor for over a year, at the moment he's a poor captain and a poor batsman we really need him to fix the latter, if that means finding someone else to be captain then so be it.  Seeing your captain give is wicket away with shocking shot selection isn't what you want when the whole team is devoid of confidence and fight.

[PaulWinch again]

Happy with Stokes, Happy with Broad (who even had the right attitude with the bat in this last test) struggling to be happy about anything else.

As a key we need Cook to start looking like a capable international opener again, he's been largely poor for over a year, at the moment he's a poor captain and a poor batsman we really need him to fix the latter, if that means finding someone else to be captain then so be it.  Seeing your captain give is wicket away with shocking shot selection isn't what you want when the whole team is devoid of confidence and fight.

Agreed Cook hasn't justified his place as an opener for a year let alone as captain. However that is symptomatic of the England team, there isn't enough pressure to perform for some players. You know that if Cook, KP, Bell, Anderson and previously Swann didn't perform they wouldn't be dropped. That can't be allowed everyone should know they need to perform to get in the side. We need to play a much more positive style of cricket and we need to realise that the England team is too insular and doesn't listen to the correct advice enough. Also if Cook is going to be captain he needs to get control of the team and stamp his authority.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and we've got to stop producing pitches in England that massively favour our players, it's not actually helping the development of our side. We need to learn how to play on all types of pitches and not having everything in England suited towards our style. If you do that it gives you a false impression of the strength of the side, and then you get what's happened on this tour.

[taylorsworkrate]

I agree Paul about playing on pitches that don't massively suit our players natural techniques, but at the same time we don't suddenly want to produce dust bowls against India or Pakistan. Or fast and bouncy ones against SA

I think the ball is the biggest thing going for our seamers in this country. The duke generally swings a lot more and the seam stays more pronounced. I think the duke should be the standard ball across all nations. ICC would never let that happen though.

[PaulWinch again]

I agree Paul about playing on pitches that don't massively suit our players natural techniques, but at the same time we don't suddenly want to produce dust bowls against India or Pakistan. Or fast and bouncy ones against SA

I think the ball is the biggest thing going for our seamers in this country. The duke generally swings a lot more and the seam stays more pronounced. I think the duke should be the standard ball across all nations. ICC would never let that happen though.

I'm not saying create pitches that count against us, just make decent pitches like they have in Australia. Those pitches have taken some spin, been good for seamers and also been good to bat on. If England had shown anything those would have been great Test wickets.

[eastie]

I was interested in vaughans comments on kp- he said either bring him into the inner circle as vice captain or ditch him altogether - he seems to feel kp is something of an outcast and they need to make a decision one way or another on him.

[spangley1812]

I was interested in vaughans comments on kp- he said either bring him into the inner circle as vice captain or ditch him altogether - he seems to feel kp is something of an outcast and they need to make a decision one way or another on him.

I heard that to and his point is that he is always fielding @ deep mid off/on or 3rd Man/Fine leg and never gives Cook advice/support on fields and or bowling changes 

[taylorsworkrate]

I agree Paul about playing on pitches that don't massively suit our players natural techniques, but at the same time we don't suddenly want to produce dust bowls against India or Pakistan. Or fast and bouncy ones against SA

I think the ball is the biggest thing going for our seamers in this country. The duke generally swings a lot more and the seam stays more pronounced. I think the duke should be the standard ball across all nations. ICC would never let that happen though.

I'm not saying create pitches that count against us, just make decent pitches like they have in Australia. Those pitches have taken some spin, been good for seamers and also been good to bat on. If England had shown anything those would have been great Test wickets.

I take your point, but i've always thought part of the charm in test cricket is the differences in conditions in different countries. It's similar to tennis with it's surfaces. You have to improve and be able to adapt your game.

In fairness to this England side (they don't really deserve any fairness to be honest), up until this summer, they were winning in tough foreign conditions regularly.