“After a tour like this, you have to be held accountable. There is no escape”; English cricket is set for a ‘red ball reset’ after Joe Root’s side suffered another thrashing from the Ashes; Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Rob Key discuss the main issues to put an end to your testing problems
England suffered a 4-0 defeat in the Ashes series in Australia. How do you solve your problems in test cricket?
An utterly dismal Ashes series for England came to an end under utterly predictable circumstances in Hobart when their batting line-up disintegrated for the last time.
Of course, heavy defeats in Australia are nothing new for England with 5-0 in 2006/07 and 2013/14 and another 4-0 loss on their last tour, and yet the feeling persists that the team from Joe Root managed to plumb new depths. with the way they succumbed without even putting a glove on the hosts.
England have been an inconsistent team in Test cricket for a number of years now, always strong at home but struggling away, but series defeats to New Zealand and India last summer showed that now, even on their own terms, they find it difficult to compete. with the best teams in the world.
As is often the case, a thrashing seems to have been the final straw with ECB chief executive Tom Harrison talking of a “red ball restart” after the series was lost in Melbourne, but what could imply that? Sky Sports experts Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Rob Key looked at the areas that need to be addressed…
English cricket is obsessed with The Ashes and as soon as one series is over, discussions begin about preparations for the next and invariably what can be done to ensure the team perform better as they try to win back the urn.
The series against Australia will always be the biggest for fans but while they are undoubtedly incredibly special for those involved in shaping England, there are other big series in between and concern about The Ashes has led to the feeling that here and now it can often be overlooked.
“The mindset for two years has been about how we have to prepare for the Ashes, we have to look to the Ashes, we have to rest people for the Ashes, we have to rotate for the Ashes, New Zealand and India are done, they will be good preparation for the Ashes,” Hussain told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
“Then all of a sudden you’ve done all this preparation and you show up and the pitches are completely different than you thought they would be. There were three green tops in there, so all your planning has gone out the window. Just look down [at the pitch] in every test match and try to win that test match.
Of course, that’s not to completely ignore what’s to come, but Key questions why that planning for the future seems so focused on a single series.
Do England just want to beat Australia or do they want to be the best team in the world? And even if it’s the former, aiming for the latter is still the best way to go.
“There has to be a degree of planning, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be about The Ashes,” Key said.
“Your planning has to be about how we become the best team in the world. That’s what Andy Flower did with Andrew Strauss. It wasn’t about getting everything ready for a Test Match series.
“Duncan Fletcher is the same thing really. When he saw Steve Harmison he didn’t think ‘Oh great, that’s how we win The Ashes’, what he thought was ‘here’s a guy, if the penny falls for him in Test Cricket , he can launch rockets at 90 mph and could be a great bowler in test cricket’.
“That’s your planning ahead. You’re looking at your hitters, like you did Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan, and it’s not about the Ashes, ‘they’re going to be good for the future, so we invested in those people.’ Then when you look at a field and you pick a team, you pick the best team for every game and every series. It’s not just about getting everything ready for The Ashes.”
Hussain added: “Before a ball dropped in the series, I was hopeful that we would move away from the narrative that we lose 4-0, 5-0, 4-1, Nasser Hussain loses his job, Andy Flower loses his job. , Duncan Fletcher loses his job, Chris Silverwood loses his job because it just plays into the narrative that The Ashes is more important than any other sporting event that’s ever existed and if you lose it, that means you have to leave.
“But if you lose to New Zealand or India, or outside of India, that doesn’t matter because we’re building towards The Ashes. I’m trying to get away from that.”
“The next thing is the West Indies, winning that game. Of course you have someone thinking ahead, but your mentality as a team, as a squad, has to be about that game. It has to be about winning every Test match and leaving that the future takes care of itself”.
There is a feeling that England will part ways with Silverwood once they have fully reviewed the Ashes debacle. The former Essex manager wants to stay but a run of 10 defeats in 14 Tests – albeit during a global pandemic and with player welfare, rest and rotation prioritized over results – has left him in a vulnerable spot, at As has the fact that very few players, if any, have improved under his supervision.
Atherton believes it is “impossible” for one man to coach England in all forms and has called for the red and white ball coaches to be separated again, something previously flirted with between 2012 and 2014 when Ashley Giles was in charge of limited overs. side and Andy Flower, the kingpin of the test.
Due to a packed winter schedule, England is operating on that model anyway at the moment: Paul Collingwood is in charge of the T20s in the West Indies, which start just six days after the conclusion of Ashes. It could have been four days if England had batted correctly in Hobart.
Atherton said: “I think England need to split the role of head coach. The ashes came from the back of the T20 World Cup and you can’t tell me it’s easy for a man to be in all of this.
“With the schedule the way it is, I think it’s impossible for one man to do it all. With split coaches, you also widen the talent pool and you can have access to a number of people that you like.”
Gary Kirsten, one of the leading candidates to succeed Silverwood, has said he would only be interested in leading the England Test squad if someone else were to one day play the part.
