Following this mornings horrific capitulation in the Second Test I propose we retrieve the bails and cremate them to signify the death of English cricket. Perhaps we could put them in an urn and call them “the ashes” or something.
It baffles me as to the kind of spirit and mental strength is running through a team that can basically hand over a test match so spectacularly. To go from 69-1 to 129 all out when you’ve managed to score over 550 declared in the first innings is just unacceptable.
Refusal to pick your best spinner and probably wicket keeper on the basis that the replacements might score a couple more runs is a bad idea. And when these two players contribute 36 in 2 innings you really do realise your plan has backfired. Key players missing (Jones, Vaughan, Tresco), key players out of form (Harmison, Strauss) and other players just coming back from injury with no time to find form (Giles, Freddie) – the entire selection has been a cock up from Day One.
Hopefully the third test will see some changes and we’ll at least make a fight of it. Glenn McGrath’s 5-0 prediction isn’t looking quite so stupid this time however.