(For the Aussie Report Card click here)
It is hard to say where it all went wrong for England. They have been outplayed in every area of the game. Their batsmen scored a thousand less runs than the Aussies (2158 vs 3189 including extras). Their bowlers took 23 fewer wickets (77 vs 100 including runouts), and they only took 20 wickets in Sydney where the Aussies were practically giving them away to hasten the end of the series. They dropped more catches and missed more stumpings, and these errors cost them more than the Aussies' errors cost them. Even their captain lost four tosses out of five.
The problem is not skill or experience. England have shown over the last four or five years that they have the skill. They even (briefly) reached number one in the world. They were also by far the more experienced line up that started the 'Gabba test. Nor was age a factor. Australia had the oldest players, and the higher average age. No, test cricket is played as much between the ears as in the middle, and one suspects that it is here that the problem lies. Perhaps the team is jaded. Having just won the Ashes in England, it may have been hard to try to climb that mountain again. Perhaps the pressure of the dressingroom culture is wearing thin. Exacting standards are much easier to handle when you are in the ascendancy, but can become a burden when things are not working out as you would like. Perhaps the team believed the publicity that had people like Botham predicting a 5-0 scoreline for England, not against it: They just needed to turn up, watch Australia roll over and collect their trophy - but were shocked when it was their team on the back foot (both literally and figuratively). From shock came panic which compounded the problem.
Batting
England managed to use eight batsmen in the top six across the series. Of them only Stokes, the sole centurian, did well, and even then only relatively. Aside from him, no one averaged over 30. The Aussies had bowling plans to each of the batsmen, and they stuck to them well. The English were so stifled that of the players to make more than 50 runs in the series, only Broad had a strike rate of over 51 runs per hundred balls, helped massively by scoring 72 runs in 72 balls across the two innings in Sydney. Ballance, Root and several of the bowlers had strike rates well below 40. This tight bowling, and the defensive mind set it engendered, often resulted in the batsmen trying to break free and getting out in ways that looked careless. However, at least half the credit for these "silly" shots goes to the bowling team.
Team Batting Grade: D+
Cook (5 Matches, 10 Innings, 0 Not Out, 246@24.6, 0x100, 3x50: 7 Catches) [1 Toss, 5 Losses]
Cook had a very ordinary series. He recieved several of the best dozen or so balls bowled in the series and was unlucky enough to recieve so many of them very early in his innings. Harris in particular bowled ball after ball in the small area just on and outside off stump that Cook is uncomfortable with. He was however the most consistent of the English batsmen as the only one to pass 50 three times. However he will be frustrated with the inabilty to push on from such a start, and with the number of times he fell to good balls early. The Aussies followed the West Indian practice of targeting the captain, and they got him out most of the time. Unlike many of his team, Cook rarely gave his wicket away. Whether his batting form impacted his captaincy or the reverse, he also had a poor series at the helm. He seemed to chase the game most of the time, and did not seem to have any innovative ideas when things were going wrong. His most innovative tactic was to concede a single to get Clarke on strike at the 'Gabba, and that backfired spectacularly. Conceding a single to get a tail ender on strike is rarely a good idea, but to do that to one of the world's better batsmen was an interesting choice. If there was an obvious choice to replace him as captain, I would, however I don't see one.
Grade: Batting: D, Captaincy D- Overall: D-
Carberry (5M, 10I, 0NO, 281@28.1, 1x50: 6 Catches)
Carberry was the first surprise selection of the tour. Picked on the back of an unbeaten 150 in a tour match, he replaced Root as Cook's partner. If his job was to try to blunt the attack, he succeded as well as anyone, facing 695 balls - over a hundred more than any team mate, and only less that the two openers for Australia. His total was also the second highest by an Englishman. He reached 38 or more in the first innings of the first four tests surviving at least 25 overs in each case. However he only converted one of these starts into a fifty, and did not manage to push that score past sixty. A magnificent fielder, but also dropped a very costly sitter in Adelaide.
Grade: C-
Trott (1M, 2I, 0NO, 19@9.5, 0 Catches)
Trott went home after the 'Gabba test with a stress related illness. This probably contributed to a very poor performance in his only appearance. His usual solidity at three is sorely missed, and hopefully for England he can come back.
Grade: F
Root (4M, 8I, 1NO, 192@27.42, 1x50: 2 Catches) {0/98}
Root was hailed in England as the next batting hero, but has been shuffled around the order and then out of the team. Originally expected to open he started the series at six, before replacing Trott at three, and finally being dropped for the Sydney test. He batted extremely slowly, scoring less than a run every three balls, and this put the pressure on the rest of the team. He may have been fine if Carberry was not also seen to be slow, as the two of them at the top of the order set the tone for the rest of the team. He looks a decent player, but outside his 180 at Lord's in the last series, he has not achieved much against the Aussies. His bowling was tight (lowest economy rate in the team) but mostly innocuous.
Grade: D
Pietersen (5M, 10I, 0NO, 294@29.4, 2x50: 3 Catches)
KP has copped a lot of stick this series for the way he has got out. He has continued to try to be aggressive, but the Aussies have bowled and fielded too well to let him get away with it. In many ways he batted a bit like Haddin, and if England had caught and fielded like the Aussies, then Haddin's figures would look a lot more like Pietersen's. KP scored more runs than any other person in the English team, and only Carberry faced more balls. A strike rate under 50 shows just how hard he had to work. Calls for him to be dropped should be ignored, unless he is a significant cause of disharmony in the dressingroom.
Grade: C-
Bell (5M, 10I, 1NO, 235@26.11, 2x50: 4 Catches)
After his heroics in England, this was a very quiet series for Bell. He scored 190 runs while the Ashes were still in play, but only managed 45 in four innings at the back end of the series. He should have been the player to take Trott's place at three, rather than waiting until the last test to put him there.
Grade: D
Stokes (4M, 8I, 0NO, 279@34.87, 1x100: 1 Catch) {15 Wickets @ 32.8}
The second surprise selection of the series, having been taken on the tour as a development player. He scored the only hundred from an English bat, but failed to pass fifty again. One wonders whether the hundred was like Agar's almost hundred in England - the bowling team did not know him well enough to have worked out a plan to him. His bowling was more than useful, if a bit expensive for a frontline bowler (economy rate of 4.21). In fact, inspite of his place in the top six, I think he is more a bowler who bats well than a batting allrounder. If Prior was in form, I would suggest Stoke drop to seven. He had a good series, leading the batting averages for England, but only Bailey among the Aussie top seven scored or averaged less than him.
Grade: Batting: C-, Bowling B- Overall: C+
Ballance (1M, 2I, 0NO, 25@12.5)
Brought in for the last test, he did not really achieve much. Needs a longer run to settle into test cricket if the selectors think he is up to it.
Grade: F
Wicketkeepers
Neither of the keepers used showered themselves in glory. In particular, Perth and Melbourne were notable for the keeping errors of Prior and Bairstow respectively. Their batting was well below average also.
Team Keeping Grade: D-
Prior (3M, 6I, 0NO, 107@17.83, 1x50: 10 Catches)
Since being named England's player of the year, Prior has looked anything but. His batting has been poor across both series, and his wicketkeeping started to follow suit in Australia. It was the right decision for him to be dropped, though in the medium term I expect he will be pushing for a place again - especially seeing how well the older opposition keeper has played this series.
Grade: D-
Bairstow (2M, 4I, 0NO, 49@12.5, 10 Catches)
His batting was not an improvement on Prior's, and initially nor was his keeping. He did better in Sydney, taking a couple of good catches. However his misses on the last day in Melbourne were shocking. A part time keeper, even at county level, he was probably not the best back up for Prior.
Grade: D-
Bowling
The English bowlers did a reasonable job. They created a lot more chances than their returns indicated, however the fielding let them down. Prior, Bairstow, Cook and Carberry each squandered chances that really should have been taken, not to mention several much more difficult ones. Having said that most of the bowlers were not near their best.
Team Bowling Grade: D+
Broad {21@27.52} (5M, 10I, 2NO, 155@19.37: 2 Catches)
Easily the best of the English bowlers, Broad suffered from the fact that only Stokes provided real support consistently. His batting was not quite there until the last test where he decided to throw the bat and scored 72 runs at a run a ball across the two innings.
Grade: A-
Anderson {14@43.92} (5M, 10I, 5NO, 41@8.2: 6 Catches)
Anderson has not been the same since the monumental effort in the first test of the previous series. There were glimpses of the former Anderson but on the whole he looked tired and out of sorts. In spite of this he managed to shoulder the most work this series, bowling almost thirty overs more than Broad (190.3 vs 161.5). He is too good a bowler to give up on him, but he sorely needs to have a rest from international cricket for a while.
Grade: D+
Swann {7@80} (3M, 6I, 1No, 36@7.2: 4 Catches)
An awful series, that finished strangely in a mid-series retirement (see here). It would not be often that he has had to wait an average of 20 overs for each wicket, or conceded almost 4 an over. His catching was fairly good, but that was about all that was.
Grade: F
Bresnan {5@41.2} (2M, 4I, 0NO, 34@8.5: 1 Catch)
Has been seen as a key part of the team in the past for his bowling and middle order batting. Came in late this series due to an injury last series, but was dropped after two relatively ineffectual tests.
Grade: D
Panesar {3@85.66} (2M, 4I, 0NO, 4@1)
He managed to have a worse series than Swann. Theoretically Swann's replacement in Melbourne, it was painfully obvious that Cook had no faith in him at all, using Root a couple of times before turning to Panesar. The feeling is that Monty may have played his last test too.
Grade: F
Tremlett {4@30} (1M, 2I, 15@7.5)
Bowled slowly for a tall fast bowler. However on reflection his figures don't look bad, at least compared to others in his team.
Grade: C-
Rankin {1@81} (1M, 2I, 0NO, 13@6.5)
A consolation wicket when Australia were throwing the bat saved Rankin's debut from being a total loss. However he did not impress. Perhaps not surprising given that he hadn't played a match in over a month - and that was a Mickey Mouse affair in Alice Springs.
Grade: F
Borthwick {4@20.5} (1M, 2I, 0NO, 5@2.5)
A legspinner who lead the batting averages for his county last season, and was not even in the squad until Swann retired, Borthwick was the biggest surprise selection of the lot. He finished with the best average of all the bowlers for England, and decieved the two form batsmen in Rogers and Haddin in his second innings - admittedly while Australia were trying to hit him out of the attack. While he gave up several boundary balls (economy rate of 6.3), he still kept tossing them up. That shows good temperament, for which he was rewarded. I would stick with him, but get him coaching sessions with a good leggie. If he can get a bit more control, he could be a real asset.
Grade: C+
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