At one point in their second innings, England had reached 65 for 1, and the lead had swelled to 105, but a stunning collapse triggered by some questionable batting left Australia needing 205, which they achieved through Travis Head’s sensational hundred.
Former captain Michael Vaughan believes that the collapse and the subsequent hammering loss is going to “hurt and damage” England.
“They have the tools to be really competitive, but you can’t be competitive without brains … This is going to hurt England, it’s going to damage them I think,” Vaughan said on Kayo Sports. “I thought after yesterday’s play England had opened up a few cracks in the Australian batting lineup. You can’t just play one way, which is what they’ve done, and they’ve come unstuck today and they came unstuck yesterday.”
Former England bowler too rued the missed opportunities. “England will be really frustrated in the fact that they got themselves in such a brilliant position … We got ourselves into a position where WinViz was saying 75% (chance of victory for) England. That’s not been the case for a long time in Australia,” Broad said on Sen Radio.
Vaughan stressed on the fact that how England squandered a dominant position. “We’re talking four-and-a-half hours of cricket where his team have gone from not a dominant position, but you’re in control of a game. They had the chance yesterday (to bury Australia) and they lost 5-12 down the back end of the innings.”
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Vaughan saw similarities between the loss and the way the last Ashes in England (2-2 drawn) progressed.
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“They had an Ashes series at home in ‘23 – they should have won that series. I felt they were the better team in that series – they didn’t win because they’ve made some errors in the first Test and the second Test.You go to Edgbaston, second innings bowled out Nathan Lyon gets 5-fer. Go to Lord’s in the second Test … England get bowled out they lose that game, 2-0 down in an Ashes series. They’ve made the same mistakes here – First Test, away from home and their batters let them down again by playing that expansive game.You remember Lord’s when they had to go to the bouncer theory, England were 1-185 – bowled out 30 overs later.
“Here, two years later, they’ve done exactly the same in the first Test of a massive series They were always going to be judged on these seven weeks. They are going to have to pick themselves up… ultimately this is a big, big blow for this group of England players,” Vaughan said.
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Broad lauded how Australia came back into the game with the ball after England had run away to a decent start.
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“It’s just what Australia do,” Broad said on SEN Radio. “They are incredible at grabbing the game back in their favour when they are under the pump and struggling, particularly at home. But actually, all over the world. They’ve got an amazing competitive mentality as a collective. And you can feel it, as soon as Harry Brook got out and they can sense, ‘Okay, we’ve got two in two (overs) here and we’re going to go.
“And then they just gave no bad balls away, they squeezed, they brought their best bowler back on in Mitchell Starc, the crowd was up and just watching it, I felt that in the middle. But actually, sat in the stands, you could feel it even more.
“You’re like, this is what Australia does as a country, and this English team, yes, some of them have experienced it before, some haven’t. They just weren’t able to cope with it, as England haven’t been able to cope with it since 2010/11,” Broad said.
