Ashes Winners to Burnt Embers: The Worst England Team for a Decade

♦ July 22, 2014 ♦ Leave a comment

Low on confidence, low on form and low on results; this is the worst England side for over 10 years. No leadership, no performances from experienced players, no balance to the eleven and no tactical nous. The questions run deep and England are in desperate need of answers.

Cook is the stem of the problems; the route of all England’s evils. A captain that leads by example with the bat rather than tactical prowess, Cook’s 27 innings without a Test hundred are devastatingly damaging. It sets a negative tone that permeates throughout the whole dressing room. It puts England on the back foot right from the off with an early wicket. It scrambles Cook’s mind so much thinking about his poor form, his captaincy suffers even more. He doesn’t know where to turn when plans aren’t working and is a culprit of following the ball; reactive rather than proactive. But as much as Cook struggles seem to dominate, his lack of support from other senior players is equally distressing.

Matt Prior seems to be creaking more with each game and his wicket keeping is rapidly deteriorating. His susceptibly to the short ball when batting is alarming too and since his match saving hundred in New Zealand, he has been at the heart of many of England’s recent collapses. Perhaps even more concerning is the baron year from James Anderson, not in the wickets and statistics sense, but certainly in the performance column. His 10-wicket match at Trent Bridge in the 2013 Ashes in England seems a lifetime ago. His lengths have dropped shockingly short and he is not the same terrorising swing bowler he was when England reached number one in the world just a few years ago. Without their talismanic lead bowler on song, England’s attack looks blunt and incapable of causing problems for anyone. Being outbowled in ‘home’ conditions by both Sri Lanka and now India is nowhere near good enough. Admittedly, some of the English pitches have not seen typical English conditions, but it has still been disappointing, especially the most recent Test defeat to India at Lords on a greentop.

England are at a “low ebb” despite what Giles Clarke says. Changes are needed. Cook is not working as captain and at the very least needs a break to sort out his batting form and his skills as a captain. The England selectors need to have an honest look at the old guard, the likes of Prior and Anderson, and decide whether this slump in form is exactly that, a slump, or whether it is a more permanent depreciation. David Saker has to take some flak as well. One of the only coaches to keep his place from the Andy Flower regime, but England’s bowling has been as equally abysmal as the batting and Saker has to take responsibility for that.

England need a new, more proactive captain; need to be brave in selecting younger players when they are performing better than the more experienced ones; and need a whole new, less conservative attitude on playing and winning Test matches. It was a good run while it lasted, but after 4 Ashes series wins in 5, this current England look more like burnt embers than Ashes winners. England need changes and it starts from the top.

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