Ashes 2025/6
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they were fucked because there was a lot of planning built on hope.
Once their two spearheads proved to be unfit, and predictably broke down, they were screwed. Throw in Atkinson being absolute ass and that's their first choice trio gone.
Didn't trust their spinner who got a free holiday.
They were fortunate that Tongue proved to be their best bowler on tour. -
England bowling attack intrigued me.
Carse certainly isn't an opener. Far too many looseners, doesn't have the discipline to bowl the line and length that gets wickets with the new ball.
Stokes is quicker than I realised. He sits in the low 140's which is international opener standard, and seems accurate enough. So why wasn't he opening? Can't he swing like a true opener? Does that matter, on pitches as spicy as we saw? Seems to be another example of pigheadedly sticking to the plan and believing in the troops to leave Carse in.
Pissed me off seeing England throw so much away in dropped catches. Black Caps bowlers seem to toil away for days at a time for the mere opportunity to drop a catch in Australia. They throw their wickets away against this English attack, but everything goes begging. Most frustrating.
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Baz is the dictionary definition of a one trick pony. He'll discover a new one and reinvent himself for a third time no doubt...
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This the bigger Telegraph read referred to in the above:
The inside story of booze-fuelled Ashes tour that divided Stokes and McCullum:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360922816/inside-story-booze-fuelled-ashes-tour-divided-stokes-and-mccullum -
@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
This the bigger Telegraph read referred to in the above:
The inside story of booze-fuelled Ashes tour that divided Stokes and McCullum:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360922816/inside-story-booze-fuelled-ashes-tour-divided-stokes-and-mccullumDamning
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Young men away on overseas work trip drank a lot. More news at 11...
Ironically, England largely lost the 1st test to Bazball, being Head's individual brilliance. Win that, scrape through the 5th test, and maybe it's a whole different conversation.
I'm not sure of the best way forward in all areas because it's not obvious to me that England have a stack of replacement players, captain or coaches ready to just step in and be as good. However, Rob Key sounds like a plonker and England could definitely sharpen up the fielding so maybe start there as an obvious "learning" and make Key the scapegoat.
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@Godder said in Ashes 2025/6:
Young men away on overseas work trip drank a lot. More news at 11...
Ironically, England largely lost the 1st test to Bazball, being Head's individual brilliance. Win that, scrape through the 5th test, and maybe it's a whole different conversation.
I'm not sure of the best way forward in all areas because it's not obvious to me that England have a stack of replacement players, captain or coaches ready to just step in and be as good. However, Rob Key sounds like a plonker and England could definitely sharpen up the fielding so maybe start there as an obvious "learning" and make Key the scapegoat.
I'm not sure how much the drinking was the issue, after all Beefy Botham put a hell of a lot away when he was winning the Ashes for England back in the day, although to be fair it was harder for him to keep the weight down and fight off the niggly injuries later in his career.....
I think the issue was England played only one way, and when the pressure was on that one way turned to shit.
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I guess it's the old story - if you're not doing something that your opposition is (or vice versa), how much do you really want to win compared to them.
Starc being one example in that story. And while he was at one end of the spectrum in the Aussie team (compared to the "Travis Head-led bar crawl"), it all seemed to be cumulative for the Poms. The story about Carse in a casino sounds interesting. And so on.
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@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
The story about Carse in a casino sounds interesting.
What was that story???
No international cricketer should be out on the piss the night before a game, that is professionalism 101. The way England played that ODI series against NZ suggests that the overall attitude was pretty poor.
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@KiwiPie said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
The story about Carse in a casino sounds interesting.
What was that story???
From the Telegraph via Stuff. Looks like the event itself was in a cafe, just that the team were staying in a casino:
The morning after England’s sucker-punch of an opening Ashes defeat in Perth, Brydon Carse was sat at a riverside cafe with his team-mates Zak Crawley and Harry Brook.
Carse put his hand in his pocket, and accidentally dislodged what eyewitnesses described as thousands of dollars in cash that flew into the air.
Patrons of the cafe, including English cricket journalists enjoying a quiet coffee, were left scrambling to grab the cash and return it to Carse. Crawley looked mortified.
The incident, whether innocent or otherwise, acts as an emblem for an Ashes tour that was loose, careless and at times downright baffling.
Bear in mind that Carse, just a year prior, had served a three-month ban for betting on cricket matches, which leads us into England’s curious choice of where to stay in Perth.
Loose behaviour and a casino stay
England opted to stay at Crown Towers, an opulent casino complex that is home to one of the best hotels in Australia. It was within a short walk of the new stadium, but living in a casino for weeks, with a total of two competitive days of cricket after the first test ended so quickly, put temptation everywhere.
The players, often well-oiled, frequented the casino’s tables in full sight of England fans and other punters, some of whom were there because it was one of the only places in Perth open after hours and showed Premier League football.
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