The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Hello and good evening sports fans, I have a question. The question is, why do we do this? When it comes to supporting the national team (England) in this case the cricket team, why do we build them up to be world beaters and knock them back down, and mercilessly?

England under the captaincy of Joe Root, have been Jekyll and Hyde, that’s putting it kindly. So, when The Three Lions set off for the test series Down Under, can one be forgiven to think, would be it 4-1 or 5-0 to Australia?

Of course home advantage, and bar India who produced a superb series performance, Australia have made Down Under a fortress. The bouncy tracks, or the inconsistent bounce too, has given the English batsmen nightmares.

England’a batsmen, have fallen like a deck of cards, the bowlers as a result have had their work cut out, this is all too familiar to past tales when England have visited arch-rival territory.

A constant change of team selection, not knowing who their best opening batsmen, or their number one spinner is, can you honestly expect anything less than a mauling? Australia on the other hand have a settled side, Nathan Lyon will be the number one spinner come rain or shine.

Now people will say, he’s the only real spinner that they have, Adam Zampa is just one player of many that are even playing in the BBL comes to mind. Australia’s opening batsmen might have changed, but Warner has remained, with England, it’s like they change from series to series .. both of them.

To find a combo like Strauss and Cook I know his hard, but they will need patience. Also, England missed a trick, Reece Topley is out in Australia and Saqib Mahmood too, but neither played in the series, begs the question, why?

Topley is tall, a left-arm option too. England’s attack, bar Mark Wood is too one dimensional, but we said that last time, England have a one-dimensioned attack, but they have done nothing about it.

So The Ashes has been lost, so Joe Root should be sacked right? Not really. For a captain, he’s young and is learning on the job. I feel, faith needs to be shown and a set strategy is needed.

Five batsmen, one all rounder and bowlers. So, let’s put it this way, usually a team should line up four quick bowlers, one spinner and all-rounder. England had Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson and Jack Leach as their front line spinner.

To be fair that’s not a bad bowling attack and England do have good bowlers, but they’re for English conditions. When Joffra Archer was available, he caused fear in Australia hearts, but they can’t solely rely on him, sadly his injury record is left to be desired.

To wrap up our conclusion, England are not going to be World Test Champions and they are not the worst side in test cricket, please don’t make them out to be either. The Three Lions have a young side, they will grow from this, but these players need some better quality of pitches to play on, meaning for bracing themselves for Australian conditions.

Find good players in the County circuit, and stick with them when they earn their chance. Greame Swan became the best off-spinner in the world at the time.