Ashes gone, can England avoid a humiliating 5-0 drubbing?

After Tuesday’s innings defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, captain Joe Root’s side could soon become the fourth English team to lose 5-0 in an Ashes series.

Trailing by 82 runs in the first innings of the third test, England resumed Tuesday’s third day of play at 31-4 and were bowled out for 68, losing by an innings and 14 runs.

Australia did not even need to wait until lunch before regaining the Ashes less than halfway through the scheduled five-match series.

One rather scathing social media user tweeted that Australia won the Ashes in a shorter time frame than the 14 days England spent in coronavirus-forced quarantine when they first arrived Down Under.

Surrounded by under-performing batters, Root top-scored in both innings for England with 50 and 28, to finish the year on 1,708 runs in 15 Tests.

Only two players, Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf (1,788 in 11 matches in 2006) and West Indies’ Viv Richards (1,710 in 11 matches in 1976) have scored more runs in a calendar year.

“I feel like I’m playing nicely at the minute,” Root said of his lone hand in England’s batting line-up. “I feel like my game is improving and I am evolving still as a player.”

Root said that Australia’s bowling attack was outstanding on a helpful MCG pitch.

“You’ve just got to find a way to get through it sometimes,” Root said.

“We need to put some pride back into the badge and we need to give people back home something to celebrate.”

Root said that he was “really disappointed” for his bowlers, who had dismissed Australia for 267, in reply to England’s first innings of 185.

“They kept us in the game,” Root said.

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Asked about his enthusiasm to continue as captain beyond this series, Root said that his focus was on two upcoming Tests in Sydney and Hobart in January. “It would be wrong to look past that,” he said.

A national record, equalling 54 ducks this year, including four in the second innings at the MCG and matching England’s mark of 1998, is a fitting statistic for Root’s side.

Root questioned whether England’s domestic competition was adequately preparing players for Test cricket.

Some English commentators said that members of England’s Lions squad, also currently in Australia and mostly there as coronavirus backup for the main team, should be liberally imported into the team for the final two Tests.

“The environment that they are coming from is not readying them well enough for test cricket. It is a very difficult place,” Root said of his domestic competition back home.

“If you are not ready . . . it makes it very difficult to improve. You need some strong inner belief. It has to come from within.”

(With inputs from Agencies)