In the span of 12 days, Australia has exposed the systemic flaws that run deep within English cricket.
A horror 2021 has come to a brutal end. Joe Root’s incredible year with the bat has been overshadowed by his men equalling the most losses (nine) and ducks (54) in a calendar year in test history.
Former Australian opener and SEN Commentator Simon Katich says England need to take a serious look at their cricket program if they are to be competitive in years to come.
“This is not something that has just cropped up on them,” Katich told 1170 SEN Breakfast.
“This has been brewing for a while.
“You only have to look into their batting and when you delve into the statistics it’s indicating that there’s massive issues in their batting development of players.”
England’s second innings score of 68 is their lowest total in Australia since 1904 and were dismissed for under 200 runs on 13 occasions across 29 innings in 2021.
Of the 25 players who represented England in test cricket in 2021, only Joe Root and Dawid Malan averaged over 30 and 15 players registered two or more ducks.
Root accounted for 26.2% of England’s runs in 2021 which overtook Sir Garfield Sobers’ record of 25.5% in 1958.
“Take Joe Root out of the equation, he’s 1150 test runs in front of the next batsman,” Katich continued.
“This indicates that there’s a massive problem.
“How they solve that will be an interesting.”
Katich said the focus for England needs to be on looking for any improvements in the remaining two test matches and find something that they can build on heading into next year.
“They’ve got to find a way to make sure they’re improving and be more competitive.
“It’s alright because you’re going to be outplayed by certain teams in their backyard.
“But they haven’t been competitive and losing that test in two and a bit days doesn’t bode well for future ashes campaigns.”
The fourth Ashes Test in Sydney begins on January 5.