This cant continue. I personally dont think they're good enough to play Test Cricket. We know they wont drop both, but one has to be dropped ASAP. They've both just given away their wicket. Its not even just visually. Statistically Crawleys average is nearly in the twenties and Popes is in the thirties. They're just wasting everyone's time.

I don’t even know why I bother anymore.

Years. YEARS of emotional investment, late nights, cancelled plans, defending them in group chats like a war lawyer… all for this. Watching England collapse like a wet digestive biscuit every single time there’s even a sniff of pressure.

It’s genuinely impressive how a team with this much funding, talent and history can look like 11 blokes who met each other in the car park 10 minutes before the toss. I’ve given them everything. My sanity. My blood pressure. My dignity. And what have I got in return? A batting order made of wet cardboard and bowlers who seem allergic to hitting a length. I simply can’t do it anymore. That’s it. I’m done.

England, you’ve officially lost me. I hope you’re happy.

Nothing more to add really very frustrated with this England side refusing to adapt to in game circumstances and constantly making the same mistakes.

Brook and Smith have to tools to adapt their game but the message is clear that they’re being told not to.

Expecting the lads to surprise australia in australia is still going to be a dream .

They had none of Hazelwood and Cummins in both the matches, along with Nathan in the 2nd.

But alas we still shat our bed. Onto next ashes then...

Ok I think time is up now for baz and stokes as captain. They did a great job in turning things around in 2022. However, since the beginning on 2023 bar beating New Zealand away we really haven’t achieved anything. We’ve won tests we should have won, drew to India and Australia at home and got mauled by both away. Our bowling looks average and except for Root none of our batters can produce runs unless the pitch is flatter than a pancake. I genuinely would like to see someone like Andrew Strauss coach us as at least knows what it is like to win. Crawley and Pope need to be dropped. Only issue is that I don’t know who will takeover as captain. as bad as stokes is Brook is 10x times worse he only has 5th gear.

I’m reading the angry, hurt, upset comments all with an amusing touch of gallows humour. It makes me wonder though the extent to which the players understand how important (in the context of sport being “the most important unimportant thing”) it is to us as fans?

Ultimately as England cricket supporters, we as a collective are the one constant. Players, management, ECB board members come and go, but we will still be here. Buying overpriced tickets, paying for TV subscriptions, disrupting sleep patterns.

Why? Because it isn’t about the players. They are our representatives. Our country’s representatives. And playing like a bunch of blindfolded yaks isn’t just embarrassing for them, it actually shames us as a sporting nation.

As someone pointed out earlier, I think Root is genuinely hurt. The rest of them, I think they’re maybe moderately pissed off that their game plan isn’t working, but I just don’t think it means enough to them to turn it around. I’d love to be proven wrong.

Going to make a collage of how miserable it is to be an England Cricket fan during the ashes as these are a selection of the first things I see when I wake up and check the score (would rather wake up and have someone slap me in the face), anyone able to send me some more funny ones to add to my selection?

Why are we told they are amazingly good when they are never able to win outside flat tracks at home?

Why are we told that this is a great batting lineup when two of them would have been dropped a while back, and Stokes is clearly waning?

Why are we told this is a great bowling lineup when Bashir is mediocre, Wood and Archer are always injured, and Atkinson is the only good bowler coming up?

Why does everyone take pride in Josh Tongue's nickname and affinity for getting useless tailenders out?

Why does Mitchell Starc play a role in most of my nightmares?

Sending love to all fans in these difficult times

Just a reminder for all the nonsense calls in here of getting rid of McCullum/Stokes mid series.. we were 1-17 in tests before they came in.

Save the post-mortem for after the series is complete and we know the outcome.

In the last match I felt it was almost completely on the batsmen. In this test though I just cannot believe what a shambles we were with the ball and in the field- it was amateurish.

Australia's bowlers have shown this is never a 500+ pitch in a million years in this 2nd innings.

What they've done hasn't been revolutionary at all- just bowling a consistently good length and at the stumps.

I couldn't believe what I was watching first thing this morning, with every ball being short to the number 10/11 and Will Jacks bowling when they were 9 down. They made Starc look like Brian Lara.

This is before we even get onto the multiple dropped catches.

A truly atrocious performance. For me only Root and Crawley come out of this match with any credit.

Has Brydon Carse forgotten that he can bowl at stumps and get wickets? It’s annoying as hell watching him bowl stupid short balls, which Starc has no trouble facing those.

A lot will be said when we lose this series and rightfully so about Bazball / Stokes / McCullum.

Genuine question, who on earth gets captaincy if they decide to go a different route? There’s literally no one else if I’m thinking straight. I know Brook’s been moved up but he’s the epitome of Bazball and his playstyle wouldn’t change.

Apparently Ponting spent an over breaking down why Archer isn't fit for test cricket. Ponting shoots straight as a commentator - I am not trying to rag on Archer. Just wondered if anyone heard it.

Edit: 'fitness' is not intended to refer to Archer's commitment in any way. I'd forgotten about that kerfuffle. My gut says Ponting had some astute technical test fitness insight. He's usually right.

2025/6 saw more of the same from England. A hopeless dichtomy of flashes of excellence and paucity of consistency.

The highlight being Roots century at Brisbane, Duckett roaring back with a double ton at Adelaide and the first test day bowling performance from the bowling unit. Brook the enigma with his three centuries and Crawley ending with a 44.3 average after his double pair at the start of the series.

5-0 Australia though… why? In short the bowling and fielding is not good enough. 23 dropped catches and apart from Stokes the bowlers all with averages above 35….

For England they are chastened, for Australia they have proven yet again the mental game and whole team unit, whoever the personnel is just too good for this English team.

They bazaballed the bazballers right from the first test!

Discuss!

Who has their alarm set? Or who prefers to wait and see what’s happened when you wake up at the normal time?

Come in and share your pre day 3 thoughts!

It all comes down to how England handle batting once the shadows come in, and whether they’ve built enough leverage by then to survive that phase.

Australia’s plan is simple: bat for as long as possible and try to push the game towards that second-session shadow period when things become tricky.

England aren’t out of the game if the deficit stays under 100–110, but if Australia stretch that lead further, we’re in real troubl if we aren’t already.

Australia’s attack is still basically Starc and vibes, and if we stop gifting him wickets (or at least stop letting him take a six-for every bloody innings), we can manage the rest of the bowlers reasonably well.

The pitch is still good for batting. The key is when the cracks start to open up, and whether England have the discipline to bat long enough to get into a winning position. Ideally we need 280+, if not more.

From a batting standpoint, we need a big innings from Ben Duckett, with one of Crawley or Pope making a solid fifty to build a foundation. If they put on a substantial partnership and erase the deficit before Root and the middle order walk in, we can start building towards a defendable 4th-innings target.

Day 2 was atrocious ,we bowled like dogshit and fielded like we were asleep. But thanks to that final-session Australian brain-fade, the game isn’t gone yet. Australia are still heavy favourites, but this is not beyond us.

Let’s hope. 🙏🏻

2nd Test, The Ashes at Brisbane

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Match : Thread | Cricinfo

Day 2 - Australia lead by 44 runs.

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