The Team That Lost The Ashes

[Notts Exile]

Was it the right squad? Did the right players get selected? How many of them won't play for England again?

In hindsight did Fletcher, Graveney and Miller pick the right group of men to go to Australia to defend the Ashes? Looking at the stats our most successful bowlers were our two slowest (Hoggard and Panesar) whereas Fletcher is obsessed with speed. Look at the Aussies, Clark, McGrath and Warne were all more affective than Lee and they didn't even bother with the raw pace of Tait and Johnson. The pitches in Oz aren't like they used to be, bowlers that put the all in the right areas and get it to do a bit are successful. Should England have selected Jon Lewis who would have done that? What was the point in Plunkett even being out there?

What came first? Bad bowling or bad batting? GBH's first ball at the Gabba didn't start things off too well. In fact, only Freddie bothered turning up in Brisbane. At Adelaide it was the Hoggy show. The batting recovered in the second knock at the Gabba and turned on the style at The Adelaide Oval (well KP and Colly did).

Would England have lost at Perth had Chris Read been behind the stumps? I'm sure he wouldn't have missed Hussey and Clarke thus denying them centuries and not setting up the platform for Gilchrist's destruction. Not that the series wasn't pretty much decided by then.

We have seen our fair share of bad decisions starting with the selection of Jones and Giles for the tour itself. Neither are likely to play international cricket again. Chris Read's Test career is probably over, barring miracles in the VB Series and World Cup. All of the batsmen will play again, probably in the First Test in the summer. An additional batsman should be added. What was the point in picking five bowlers when so often the fifth man was a much under used option?

The future isn't so dark. We don't have to play Oz again until 2009 and then they won't have McGrath or Warnie. The players learning their trade now will either have done so successfully and will be a part of the team trying to regain the Urn or will have disappeared. All of them have things to work on and they will do. But who will be coaching them come the summer?

[Milo]

I said at the start that once Trescothick went home, Butcher had to come out. The batting had next to no experience, something that somebody should have expected to be a problem.