Why are any of yous even bothering to follow this (other than
@Pakenhamtrain of course!), unless you enjoy torturing yourselves. It's been fairly likely how this would pan out and become quite clear exactly how it was going to pan out around an hour into Day One of the Brisbane test. This is, fundamentally, a very weak England side and the cracks have been papered over by the odd individual doing something heroic. But in reality the batting is utterly atrocious in the main and the bowling isn't much better anymore (that was one of the few areas that was able to cover up how shocking the battering had been).
There needs to be a reckoning and a real questions asked about the English game from top to bottom with some actual, you know, answers. Not just more blithe PR speak from the ECB. Writing has been on the wall for a while that the England test team was in dire straights. See the 2019 Ashes, we all harp on about Headingly and Ben Stokes heroics, but in reality we were seriously outclassed in that series in multiple matches against what was not a strong Australian side in our own conditions.
We're currently playing a relatively weak Australian side (not that long since they got beaten by a weakened Indian side playing in Australia). Even though the Aussies are always tough in their own conditions we should still be doing better than this.
