Former England captain Michael Vaughan says Ollie Pope’s position is ‘under a huge amount of threat’ and Ben Stokes should consider moving up to three in the batting order.
England have a mountain to climb in the Ashes after Australia cruised to a comprehensive eight-wicket win in Brisbane’s pink-ball Test to go 2-0 up with three Tests remaining.
An inspired Joe Root century in England’s first innings had given the tourists major hope of levelling the series after their loss in Perth, the Yorkshireman’s first ever ton Down Under.
But the response from Australia was emphatic, with Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschange, Steve Smith, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc all passing 50 as the hosts posted an imposing total of 511.
An unbroken, second-innings partnership of 65 between Stokes and Will Jacks helped England creep to a lead of 64, but it proved light work for Australia, who knocked off the required runs in the space of just ten overs on the fourth day.
Smith, who has filled as captain for the injured Pat Cummins in the first two Tests, smashed Jofra Archer for six to steer Australia over the line and spark rapturous scenes at the Gabba.
‘Australia have just been too strong for England this week,’ Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
‘England have had moments but when England have a really bad session it’s an awful session.
‘It’s losing them Test matches, whether it’s that last session on day two when they dropped so many balls, the last session on day one when they lost two many wickets, whether it was the last session last night when they lost too many wickets.
‘They lost Will Jacks and it was obviously going to be quite hard for the tailenders.’
Vaughan reserved special praise for Michael Neser, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in the match, and felt Stokes and Co were ultimately undone by ‘English-style’ bowling.
‘I have to say that Australia bowled beautifully today because there wasn’t a great deal there,’ he added.
‘Michael Neser is bowling 130km/h and he’s just hitting the top of off stump.
‘A very English-style bowler, a Chris Woakes-style bowler, someone like a Sam Cook would bowl in that kind of fashion.
‘Those three seamers are almost English-style seamers and they’re doing a job against an England team.’
Once the dust has settled on England’s latest setback, there is likely to be an inquest and a few difficult conversations to determine exactly where it all went wrong at the Gabba.
Stokes could not hide his emotions after the defeat and was honest with his assessment of England’s limp showing, questioning the character and fight within his squad.
According to Vaughan, there is definitely an issue with the ‘mentality’ of the touring side – and big changes may have to be made to the XI in Adelaide.
‘They’re going to have to make changes,’ he explained.
‘Ollie Pope’s position at number three has to come under a huge amount of threat.
‘There’s a few ways you can go, you can throw Jacob Bethell to number three. He’s got a few runs in the England Lions game against Australia A.
‘But he’s never got a first-class century and if you’ve never done that, do you really think he’s going to do it against this Australia side with Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon potentially back?
‘Could Ben Stokes bat at number three? I’ve said it for a while that he’s such a leader, he’s got such a good technique and he likes the fight.
‘Could he go to number three? That means Will Jacks could bat at number six.
‘You start looking at little scenarios of what could happen within the England side and then you look at the bowling attack, you look at Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts… that English-style bowler, do they bring one of them into the side?
‘But the Adelaide Oval, it’s probably not that style of week for an English quick. You probably want a bit more pace.
‘They’ve got so many questions to answer. The big thing for this England side is the mentality.’
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