England hoped that, compared to their previous tours Down Under, this time, with their renewed approach of playing style under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, they would do better. Nevertheless, the results have been more or less the same. Apart from the win in MCG, the series followed a similar pattern with Australia dominating. Former Indian cricketer R Ashwin said he is wondering what is coming next for England.
“I wonder what is next for England. If we do a man to man marking, as it’s done in football, when England got into the shores they would have told themselves as Stuart Broad did too. This is probably a very good England side against not probably one of the best Australian sides. They didn’t have their main seamers. Michael Neser was tipped to play only in one ground. But Neser took plenty of wickets. He got four scalps in the first innings in Sydney, continued to bowl well. The caught and bowled off Joe Root’s bat was fabulous,” Ashwin said.
Josh Hazlewood missed the entire series, while Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon missed the majority of the series due to injuries. “It was almost a second-string attack. Scott Boland got through all five Tests and he’s never done it in the past. England would really say it’s an opportunity welost here and definitely missed our chances. Brendon McCullum said our methods weren’t wrong but only to refine it. He feels they needs a tweak here and there. I don’t think he thinks the methods need a change,” he added.
“Robert Key has always backed people. As far as I’m concerned, Rob Key has done quite a good job. But it happens that if a company doesn’t perform well, CEO is often the target. I feel Robert Key is a man with good vision, composure and stability,” Ashwin said.
