- Comes after Aussies moved to a commanding 2-0 series lead
Three Lions supporters, English greats of the game and even Piers Morgan have lashed out at skipper Ben Stokes’s side with withering criticism after their humiliating capitulation in the second Ashes Test.
Before the series started, the mood was buoyant, at times bordering on arrogant, from England supporters. Now, they have gone almost completely silent – and those who have spoken out have blasted every aspect of the team’s performance.
The boldest and brashest England cricket fan and media personality is Piers Morgan, and the man who once claimed they secured a ‘moral victory’ in a loss to Australia was on the front foot again after the disaster at the Gabba.
‘Come on Eng cricket we need a better fight than these,’ Morgan posted on social media as a rallying cry.
‘Australia aren’t a better team, they’re just playing with more brain cells which given they’re Australians, is inexplicable. Wise up, fast.’
Morgan also posted: ‘We have the skills to beat Australia, but we don’t have their mental strength. Rarely seen him [Stokes] so direct in public criticism of his team… and suspect it will involve much sharper language behind closed doors. Wake up, wise up, and toughen up England.’
Some of the biggest newspapers in the UK consigned the Lions’ performance to the bottom of the sport pages – if the Test got a run at all.
Instead, they concentrated on Englishman Lando Norris’s F1 drivers’ championship victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Sun ran a single article at the very bottom of its online sports page, which focused on Smith’s classic ‘champion’ sledge to Jofra Archer and not on the loss.
The Mirror was more interested in Freddy Flintoff, with articles on him clashing with a rugby star and appearing on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! occupying the top spots on the sports page.
The Telegraph was flooded with Lando Norris articles as well, but it did reserve some space to give the English cricket team a double whack.
Geoffrey Boycott, the English great who was part of two Ashes series wins on Australian soil, slammed captain Ben Stokes and his men, along with their Bazball approach.
‘We can’t believe anything Ben or his team say. None of them want to listen to anyone outside of their own camp,’ Boycott wrote.
‘They are up their own backsides convinced that Test cricket has changed so much that only they know anything about the modern game.
‘But what do I know? I am just a has-been who did four England tours of Australia winning two Ashes series and drawing the other two.’
Chief sports writer Oliver Brown, who is in Australia for The Ashes, wrote that Ben Stokes appeared to be ‘sick of his own team’.
‘On this occasion, he had every right to be. It is one of many fundamental flaws in this side that they tend to leave Stokes alone on the burning deck,’ he wrote.
‘The biggest disappointment is that this is a long way from being a vintage Australian outfit,’ he wrote.
Yet, so far, they have looked the tougher, more disciplined and more capable team.’
Sky Sports also barely covered The Ashes, jumping off the ship when the ledger clicked over to 2-0 in favour of Australia.
The outlet’s sole article featured coach Brendon McCullum admitting they over-prepared for the Brisbane Test.
‘We will look at some alternative methods over the next couple of days,’ he said.
‘We have got a couple of days in Noosa so it will be nice to spend a few days casually and let the dust settle on what has been a pretty intense couple of weeks and start playing our way back into the series.’
Speaking on the BBC Test Match Special, former captain Michael Vaughan said the tourists risked ‘psychological damage’ after surrendering the first two Tests so meekly.
‘I worry about this psychological damage of this last two days,’ he said.
‘Not just for the batters, but particularly the bowlers, who had so much time out there and they just didn’t look like they were going to get wickets.’
Jonathan Agnew added: ‘The fact is that none of these players are being put under any pressure by anybody else in the squad – there is no culpability, there are no ramifications, there’s no question of anybody being dropped.
‘Apart from Pope who has Bethell in the wings, but he’s not scoring any runs either. There’s nobody to put pressure on any of these players, so you just go out and bat as you want to play.
‘There should be a selection in which these players are being put under pressure, and if you fail time and again doing the same thing, you’re gone, you’re dropped.’
Fans also unleashed on the display in Brisbane.
‘Stokes and McCullum have been offering a load of nonsense in defence of England’s abject performance. Start by getting the basics right. Demonstrate some application, focus and determination. This is test cricket, not one day knockabouts,’ one wrote on X.
‘England are unfit, were unprepared and that’s a recipe for disaster in Aus. They are embarrassing us,’ added another.
‘Why doesn’t the ECB boot mcullum? This isn’t good enough. England aren’t even competitive. It’s boys vs men,’ wrote a third.
Read more
- Is Ben Stokes’ leadership under fire after England’s crushing defeat in The Gabba test?
- Did Ben Stokes’ England squad crumble under pressure as brainless batting led to a humiliating Ashes defeat?
- Why are fans questioning tactical readiness after England’s dismal bowling display against the Lions ahead of Ashes?
- Are England’s cricket legends right to slam Ben Stokes’ relaxed golf preparation ahead of the high-stakes Ashes series?
- Why did England captain Ben Stokes find The West Australian’s bold critique of Joe Root ‘gutted’ and unsettling?
