Standard of England cricket exposed in Ashes, says Paul Farbrace

ECB management did not echo Farbrace's emotions but contradicted him, saying England are in a very good state.

Hopes were high from England for the ongoing Ashes but apart from some controversies and a few scattered heroics, all England did was to hand The Urn to hosts Australia. While skipper Joe Root and other current and former players have tried to pick positives from the series, assistant coach Paul Farbrace admitted that the tour exposed England’s quality of cricket. However, ECB management did not echo Farbrace’s emotions but contradicted him, saying England are in a very good state.

“In many ways the last few days have summed up our trip. We just haven’t been good enough with the bat to get 450-500. We’ve talked a lot about getting in good positions, about how we’ve had glimpses or sessions where we’ve played good cricket. But we haven’t been good enough over the course of a day, or an innings, to put Australia under pressure. We’re constantly chasing the game,” Farbrace said, as reported by EspnCricinfo.

“A series like this does expose issues in your team. And we have a choice. You either churn out some positive stuff or we can be honest and admit that there are certain areas that are not good enough. That’s every single one of us: players, staff, structures, setup. Everybody needs to look very closely and ask if we have got the right people in the right places, and if we are doing the right things. There’s no point me sitting here chatting about some niceties like some nice periods of play. Nice periods of play and brief glimpses do not win you Test matches and they certainly don’t win you Test series in a place like this,” he added.

Farbrace also believes that to win the next Ashes, they will have to start preparing from the very moment itself.

“If England are serious about coming back here and winning in four years’ time, the planning needs to start in the next couple of days. You need to start identifying the type of personnel that you need, character-wise and skill-wise, to come here and win. The honesty and planning for next time has got to start as soon as possible.”

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