If Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes thought they would get any help from their country of birth, they had better think again.
Former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith is the latest cricket legend to question the England team’s attack at all costs attitude to Test cricket which spectacularly imploded on them in Perth on Saturday.
McCullum could be under pressure to keep his job if the Poms cannot at least make a contest of the Ashes as they head to Brisbane for next week’s second Test under immense pressure.
“The thing that gets me through the whole thing, and I know Brendon pretty well, and we know Stokes’ character, is the resilience,” Smith said on SEN Radio.
“Surely, things have got to change.
“I mean, they’ve got 11 days in between a two-day Test and the next Test, it’s like starting the tour all over again.
“It confounds me, actually, because cricket is a game where you learn on the go.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are, how many games you play, but every day is a learning process where something happens that hasn’t happened before, and it just gets me that they just seem unwilling.”
Stokes and McCullum have attracted further criticism for their unwillingness to release any of their faltering batters for the England Lions’ pink-ball clash with the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, starting on Saturday.
In further bad news for England, it appears the Aussies have solved their top-order fragility after Travis Head’s match-winning hundred in his new role at Optus Stadium.
And they are a strong chance of getting captain Pat Cummins back into their line-up with the world-class fast bowler hurtling down the comeback trail from his recent back injury.
Pat Cummins. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
“In terms of cylinders in the car, I think Australia operated on about three cylinders,” Smith said.
“It was far from a convincing performance, but I would imagine there’s a bit more common sense and a little bit more behind-the-scenes preparation about Australia.
“If you tour Australia, generally as the tourists, you are second fiddle to everything in terms of the media and attention.
“But, Australia now, unbelievably, because of England and their resistance to change, are almost flying under the radar.
“They’ll be doing some really serious work behind the scenes. They have a group of guys who will leave no stone unturned.
“They know exactly what they’re going into. They know exactly that there’ll be a bounce back or an attempted bounce-back from England, and an aggressive one at that.
“It’s their backyard. They’ll just go about their business.”
