TEST TALKING POINTS: Australia's power hour and England's four-year plan

Flip the order?

Instead of adding another batter to the England top-order carousel, perhaps the solution to their problems lies in the existing XI.

We're perhaps past the point of hoping for a decent start. Nineteen of the last 46 opening stands since the 2019 Ashes have ended with the score still in single figures.

Just 11 reached the 50 mark and only four got into three figures.

Once again in this series, it needed Dawid Malan and Joe Root to come together with the ball still new to give England a foothold.

While there remain a handful of untried options in the county game, it feels almost cruel to throw them into the role next summer.

That said, Alastair Cook believes Rory Burns has to consider remodelling his technique entirely if he is to make it in Test cricket. It was a worrying assessment after the carnage at the end of day two.

If taking the shine off the new nut is the object, frustrating the opening bowlers and taking them into their second spells once numbers three, four and five arrive, perhaps England should be flipping their order.

Jack Leach back in the top three, James Anderson digging out the reverse sweep and Stuart Broad rolling back the years to pre-Varun Aaron.

I'm only half-joking and the reality is it isn't a sustainable or foreseeable option. But they've tried everything else; players who grind away on the circuit, white-ball specialists and shifting around the order.

It seems cruel to draw another player from an inadequate first-class domestic game and ask him to solve an issue going back seven or eight years. Josh Bohannon has been mentioned in dispatches, but he deserves better.

^{Australia celebrate on their way to bowling England out for 236 (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)}

The hour when the Ashes disappeared

Sixty-three minutes. Sixteen overs. Twenty-four runs. Three wickets.

After a serene opening session, this was the passage of play that, if it wasn't already clear - confirmed the destination of the Ashes.

Even Devon Loch would convert this position of authority. After the dinner(?) break Australia ran through the England middle-order, getting rid of Joe Root, Dawid Malan and Ollie Pope. Eight eventually fell for 86 either side of tea.

Ardent Aussie supporters might claim their team were already overwhelming favourites to keep hold of the urn. But now it is a formality. They will go to the MCG two up with three to play.

It was a period that highlighted the quality of Australia and the plight of their tourists. Cameron Green plugged away outside off-stump and eventually caught Root's edge.

When Mitchell Starc, Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson can't get through, what an asset the hosts have in Green who has now picked up the England captain in successive innings.

Malan had struggled cutting the ball all day, mainly off Nathan Lyon, and it was little surprise to see him perish going at one not wide enough.

Steve Smith took another grab in the slip cordon. Australia's catching has been exemplary in this series and that area is perhaps where the biggest gap between these two sides exists.

And then Ollie Pope, dancing around, trying to impose himself, chips the ball up for Marnus Labuschagne at short leg.

You wonder if that is the end of the road for the Surrey batter this winter. He is a sitting duck against Nathan Lyon, whom he averages 4.5 against. In 2021, Pope has scored 364 runs at 22.754 and with Jonny Bairstow waiting in the wings, a swap is inevitable for Melbourne.

Anyone waking at 6.40am to watch the final two sessions of the day will have had any enthusiasm they had left scrubbed away by a grim passage. During what should have been the best time for batting England lost four batters (Jos Buttler later departed) and added just 57 runs. 

It was enough to lose complete faith in this cricket malarky.

Joe Root (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Four years on but a familiar story

During play, I was alerted to some footage that emerged at the end of the 2017/18 series, a roundtable from BT Sport including Michael Vaughan and Geoffrey Boycott.

"They talk about planning and preparing but they haven't done it," said Boycott. "What they've done for this hasn't worked, that is if they've done any."

Vaughan added: "The facts are the Australia team in these conditions are just far better. Australia are far closer to winning in England conditions; we're miles away from winning here with what we've got."

You could have picked the conversation up and dropped it onto the end of this series and few would have noticed a difference in the tone or the primary areas of concern.

I know we bang on about this but England have been preparing for this series since the 2019 Tests. And they arrived with a similarly structured team (minus Alastair Cook), Stuart Broad and James Anderson a few years older and plenty of the same old problems.

It is legitimate to ask how English cricket has got itself into this predicament again. Tom Harrison, Ashley Giles, Mo Bobat, Chris Silverwood and Joe Root must all come under the microscope.

Selection throughout the year has been geared towards ensuring players were not burned out by the time they got to Australia. And while that initially doesn't look the case, they're in no better place to regain the urn than they were the last time they were down under.

For a nation of such resources, this is an unacceptable position.

Switching off

"Will anyone care? This might be the fourth time either of the big three have met in Tests in 2021 and yet the outcome feels like a formality. In the UK at least, fans will be asked to stay up through the night to support their team. If one-sided sessions, days, and Tests follow, for how long with sport's oldest rivalry continue to hold the attention? It saddens me to say, but the blue-riband series on the calendar might be reduced to a footnote."

Asked what the 'story to watch' would be ahead of this series, I feared this winter would lead to a mass switch-off.

Test cricket might be our sport's best format, but it needs help. And engaging, accessible competition does that. It's some of the reason the World Test Championship was started.

We shouldn't take anything away from Australia, whose job is not to make Test cricket competitive. They're here to win and that side of the bargain is being fulfilled. Attempts to wash away the memories of defeat to an India second string are going well.

We're already seen England wilt in India in what was a galling series. This has a familiar feel to it, a one-sided contest with one team inadequately equipped for the challenge. 

If indeed Australia do go 2-0 up heading to the MCG, how many hardy souls will brave Christmas Day night and beyond to watch the action unfold? That's what Sky+, various highlights packages or digital clips are for.

I know of at least one cricket-loving friend who turned off during day three, such was the lack of competitiveness on show. How many others will go the same way as the winter drags on?

150 for 2 ⏩ 236 all out.#Ashes pic.twitter.com/lqocZD4T6s

— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) December 18, 2021

Pressure on Harris

Marcus Harris was identified as Australia's first-choice opening partner for David Warner, to give him clarity over his role for the Ashes.

But he is yet to repay the faith shown in him by the Aussie selectors. He came into the second innings in Adelaide with three single-figure scores in a brown and threatens to be a passenger during this Ashes campaign.

So while Australia are batting again under very little pressure, the same can't be said for Harris who needs a score to ensure he does become a difficult Sporcle answer in a couple of years.

And there is no immediate sign Australia will make a chance, not least because there are few options. Will Pucovski debuted last summer but hasn't played for Victoria this summer due to continued concussion issues.

Our coverage of the Ashes is brought to you in association with Cricket 22

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