Post Mortem

I have now had a chance to reflect upon the events of the past few days. I have read the comments of Boycott and Caddick and have to agree. I don't think England can bounce back from this. I'm not usually into post mortems but we need one here. Duncan Fletcher and the Selectors need to listen to the people. I know they are the experts but even so, if we the fans and the commentators can see what was wrong why can't they? These are the problems:

1. Preparation:
It was obvious at the Gabba that England hadn't prepared but even up until the final morning of the 2nd test they wasn't preparing correctly. Apparently they only did batting practice on the final morning so that none of our bowlers were ready to bowl when it happened.

2. Selection:
Monty took 32 wickets in his first 10 tests including two 5 wicket hauls. This is the kind of player we need; someone who takes the game to Oz. The inclusion of Giles hasn't paid off. DF said he wanted to bat to 8 but surely the only way to win is to take 20 wickets. Strengthen the bowling. Mahmood has taken 15 wickets in 5 tests and can bat. These 2 need encouragement if they are to develop. If I were either of the lads I would be feeling cheated.

3. Attack with the ball:
Not once in this series have I seen a real attacking field. It has always been defensive. When MV was running the show he had men up close and personal. People like Bell right under a batsman's nose. We call it our bowling attack and it looks pretty tame to me.

4. Attack with the bat:
We need batsmen to play with confidence not in a containment level. Flintoff praised the Oz bowlers after the match and said that it was hard to score runs off Warne & Lee. This is nonsense. Warne didn't bowl particularly well...we just let him bowl to us instead of hitting him out of the attack. And whilst Lee had the ball swinging surely we prepared for this? We saw enough of him in 2005 to know what he is capable of. Our batsman (particularly the top 6) have the ability to take the game to Australia but failed to do so.

5. Intelligent Cricket:
We need to play intelligent cricket. We need a tatical captain who knows how to put the Aussies off their balance. Freddie is a fantastic talisman but not a great captain. He was picked because Oz feared him but I don't think they are scared now.

It is time to save some face. We could win three in a row but we won't. What we could achieve is make Oz fight for the Ashes. The way things are now we shouldn't have bothered even going but instead just sent a white flag and a little urn over there.

An edited version of this article is also published on Sportingo: http://www.sportingo.com/home/1,1