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England greats lament ‘gutless’ Ashes collapse

Rob Forsaith

Alastair Cook believes England hit ‘‘rock bottom’’ in Hobart, while Ian Botham has lamented the ‘‘embarrassing’’ and ‘‘gutless’’ collapse that handed Australia a comprehensive 4-0 Ashes series win.

Abject England lost 10 wickets for 56 runs in 22.5 overs, falling to pieces after reaching 0-68 to be beaten by 146 runs at Blundstone Arena on Sunday night in the fifth test.

‘‘I actually can’t believe — an hour and a half to lose 10 wickets — that’s the biggest shock as a batter and a professional who plays cricket,’’ former skipper Cook said on BT Sport.

‘‘You get bowled out in a session once or twice in a career. After a couple of wickets, we said ‘something is on here’ and you see a batting line-up devoid of all confidence.

‘‘Once they lose one or two, no-one steps up and stops the slide.’’

Botham fumed on the Seven Network. ‘‘It’s been embarrassing . . . gutless,’’ he said. The way that they performed today will have disappointed me and disappointed everyone back home.

‘‘They should be disappointed in that dressing room. The one thing we have to do now is take our heads out of the sand and we need to pull together and prioritise redball cricket.

‘‘Because if we’re not careful, the Eskimos will be beating us.’’

England had battled gamely to just eke out a draw in the fourth test in Sydney but in Hobart they folded once again.

‘‘That was very tough viewing, that has to be our rock bottom, there cannot be a worse a place than getting bowled out in a hour and a half,’’ Cook said.

Meanwhile, an emotional Joe Root believes he is the right man to lead England out of the abyss, saying he would like to remain captain after another Ashes series loss.

England’s 146-run loss in Hobart concluded a calamitous series where Root’s side were competitive in only a few sessions over the five Tests.

Root’s five-year reign as captain has been called into question as the tour lurched from one heavy defeat to another, but the 31-year-old batter has made it clear he wants to stay in the job.

‘‘I’d love the opportunity to take this team forward and to turn things round,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘At the moment, we’re going through a real tough stage as a group of players.

‘‘The performances haven’t been good enough but I’d love the opportunity to turn things round and for us to start putting in performances you’d expect from an English test team.’’

Asked whether he was merely hoping for an opportunity to quit the captaincy on a high after a successful series, Root was adamant. ‘‘I believe I am the right man to take this team forward, in my own eyes, and if that decision is taken out of my hands, so be it,’’ he added. ‘‘But I’d love the opportunity to carry that forward.’’

Root has been publicly outspoken about the deficiencies of both his bowlers and batsmen over the series and said the squad had to accept they were clearly second best on this tour.

‘‘We’ve let ourselves down because we’ve not given a fair account of what we’re capable of,’’ he said. ‘‘But, at the same time, it’s quite evident that Australia are, at this moment in time, a better team than we are, in all areas.’’

England head coach Chris Silverwood would not be drawn on his own future when speaking to BT Sport after the match.

‘‘That’s obviously something that will come out in the review later on, so I’m not going to speak about that right now,’’ Silverwood said.

Cummins and teammates will toast their triumph before switching attention to a white-ball series against New Zealand later this month.

Test tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka then await, with Cummins determined to ensure his side secure a spot in the 2023 world test championship final.

‘‘To be the best side in the world you have to win at home but, almost more importantly, you need to be successful overseas,’’ Cummins said.

‘‘We haven’t played a whole lot overseas in the last couple of years. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India next year, England — it’s all really foreign conditions.’’

Sport

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2022-01-18T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-18T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282325388339770

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