As England prepare for one of the great occasions in the sporting calendar, the Boxing Day Test, an Ashes tour that started with huge hopes of winning the urn has been reduced to a desperate attempt to save the last vestiges of dignity.
With a third consecutive loss on Sunday in Adelaide, the tourists have been merciless since they humbly gave up the series to an improvised Australia team, extending their losing run in Australia to 18 Tests dating back to January 2011.
There will definitely be post-mortems on player behavior, skill execution, squad selection, and preparation, but England still needs to negotiate two more dead rubber games before they can leave for home.
The tourists have been playing at about 20% of their talent level in Australia, according to team director Rob Key, whose career, along with those of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, will be on the line if England lose 0-5.
There is still much space for improvement at the Melbourne Cricket Ground starting on Friday, when the customary Christmas crowd will help fill the enormous home of Australian cricket.
Stokes stated that his objective in Melbourne and Sydney was clear, despite his worries about his players’ mental health in light of media reports of some heavy drinking during a break between the second and third Tests.
“This has not gone anywhere near to plan whatsoever (but) I’m very, very determined to go out and win the remaining two games,” he told reporters at the MCG on Wednesday.
“When you know that you can look back on these first three games, and know that you haven’t been able to sustain a quality of cricket for long enough, you are generally going to end up on the wrong side of the result.
“(But) I’m very determined to leave Australia with something positive to look back on.”
With captain Pat Cummins returning to his back rehabilitation now that the series is settled and spinner Nathan Lyon out for several months following hamstring surgery, Australia has a few more selection problems to deal with.
However, the home team has faced these difficulties since the beginning of the series and will scarcely consider them insurmountable considering that every selection risk they have made or been compelled to make has essentially paid off.
The success of “Ronball”—a lighthearted homage to their phlegmatic coach Andrew McDonald and a spoof of McCullum’s “Bazball”—has been celebrated by the Australian players.
In a very casual press conference on Tuesday, McDonald even gave a brief assessment of England’s performance thus far in the series.
“We have been a little bit surprised at times,” he said. “The way that we had seen them play, to what they’ve delivered at certain times, has surprised us. We can hypothesize around that, but that’s their problem, not ours.”
