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Basking in the afterglow after being at Lords for the second test has quickly dissipated after watching the debacle in the last two tests. What an absolute disgrace the capitulation in the first innings at both Trent Bridge and Edgbaston!

I can't cop it Mike, I can tell you there was no belly laughs in my lounge room. Complete capitulation very low point in Australian sporting history.

Yes it was a seamers greentop wicket but would it have been the same if Australia had won the toss and bowled .... I don't think so coz they know how to bat on those wickets they do it day in day out. All along the commentators have been saying you don't get on the front foot when it's seaming around you get right back and see what the ball is doing. They showed the side on view of the first 6 wickets to fall and every one showed the batsman on the front foot, just really basic stuff that our millionaire cricketers cant or wont do.

Smith is a wonderful run maker but to see him abandon commonsense and try and get after the bowler in his first over was just ridiculous and so was Clark's dismissal where he had another brain fade chasing a very wide ball only to clip it with the end of his bat ...what was he thinking? And why leave the best seamer in the squad sitting in the rooms, Siddle should have played, what a shame to lose Harris before the series started, he would have bowled beautifully on that pitch

The eastern states centric mob that run cricket will no doubt stick with Clarke and most of the current squad and they will come back to OZ and most probably win the next series as OZ conditions and pitches are all they can play on.

Senior Seagull wrote:

The eastern states centric mob that run cricket will no doubt stick with Clarke and most of the current squad and they will come back to OZ and most probably win the next series as OZ conditions and pitches are all they can play on.

Pity about Eastern States theory. NO QLD'S, NO Vic's, NO Tassies. ONE Sth Aussie. Balance was WA & NSW. Boys club.

Peter North wrote: Would have to be the worst hour and a half of test cricket dished up by an Australian cricket side.

Broad 8 for 15 and not one of those balls would have hit the stumps, thats what happens when you prepare roads and play heaps of 20/20.

You are spot on PN. First sign of the ball moving and our guys deadset sh1t themselves and it all goes back to being flat track bullies on dud wickets which is the norm in this country every summer these days. The footwork of each of the first six against the moving ball was just appalling. Straight down the wicket every time. Maybe Shane Watson is the batting coach? This is stuff that I see my young bloke and his team mates handle at district level every week - front foot to the ball, head over the ball, full face of the bat. Fair dinkum it wasn't like the ball was moving sideways, a bit of swing, a bit of seam movement. But more than enough for our guys to go to water. Freakin pathetic.

Joe Root. CAN BAT.

I think the selectors need to take a long term view to this now that the Ashes are 99.9% gone. I know the ashes are not the only thing to build towards but it is still an important date in the calendar and my understanding is that the next ashes series in Australia is 2 and a half years away. So of the current squad in England, who will still be around for this series ( assuming fitness and form of course)
From the current eleven

Warner
Smith
Shaun Marsh ( possibly)
Nevill
Hazlewood
Lyon

and from the broader squad, Mitch Marsh and Cummins

So the selectors need to be building a team over the next few years around these guys and also gradually integrating some of whom have had a little taste and are now in the Australia A set up. Guys such as Joe Burns, Usman Khwaja, Cam Bancroft, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Nathan Coulter Nile, Gurinder Sandhu and Nic Maddinson. There also may be a role for guys like James Pattinson and Callum Ferguson. There are also some very promising players in the under 19 set up too. A change of direction is needed and we need to get away from the "Dads Army" look that the Australian team has at the moment.

Darren berry got it right the other day when he wrote in the Herald sun about how its been a long time since we have introduced a couple of young kids into the batting line-up.

Its time to give games to Travis Head, Cam Bancroft, Joe Burns, Nick Maddinson a game, the selectors need to really consider their all rounder also. Mitch marsh is living off the family name - similar to what Sean has done over the years - maybe its time to give others a go, Marcus Stoinis is one that comes to mind, regular took wickets for the Vic's last year and batted in the top three for his state

IN my life time, the only player whom has made consistent runs in England against good bowlers on seaming pitches has been Border. Even the great Greg Chappell struggled after 1972 and, most notably in 1977 with just the once century. All the runs made from 1989 until 2005 are suspect, as England had a sub-standard attack.

But many scribes still make excuses for the flat track bullies whom can't play of the back foot to save themselves. I remember an interview with Walters recently, where although his record in England was mentioned, it was claimed that he had superior reflexes so he knicked all the bowling to slip. The exceptions to this rule would be Gough, and, at various times, Tufnell and Caddock.

Looking ahead, unless England start producing the bowlers they had in 1989 -- Pringle, Emburey, De Freities and Newport -- we will continue to loss test series over there.

For the record the English bowled pretty well and joey root is indeed a good player. He owes England some runs the next time England visit us, and, being able to play off the front and back foot he should have some success in Australia.

Everyone has banged on about Siddle coming in for Starc.....what about Johnson?....he has bowled shite for being Aust most experienced frontline fast bowler......bowled two decent deliveries last test.....got smashed for 100 in Cardiff......100 again in Trent Bridge.....definitely living off his 5-0 Ashes exploits from 2013.....32/33 yrs old....time to pension him off......got no bowling nous what so ever.......