Hindsight makes experts of us all, but the failings of this tour began long ago.
It was a missed opportunity not to trial a genuine opener when Zak Crawley got injured in the summer of 2024, instead asking Dan Lawrence to do a job for which he is not suited. Lawrence has not been seen since.
If Jordan Cox’s broken thumb in New Zealand 12 months ago was unfortunate – Cox could have been a badly needed reserve keeper in Australia – then the decision to send Mark Wood to the Champions Trophy proved immeasurably costly.
England so badly wanted pace on this tour, then managed to injure their fastest bowler in a tournament they were never going to win.
Assistant coach Paul Collingwood disappeared at the beginning of the home summer and has not been replaced, and there was no clarity on the identity of England’s fast-bowling coach for this tour right up to the last minute.
Chris Woakes’ dislocated shoulder effectively ruled him out of the Ashes, but there were still two other players in England’s squad for the last Test against India that did not make it to Australia: Jamie Overton and Liam Dawson.
Overton took a break from red-ball cricket after using up a spot at The Oval which could have gone to Matthew Potts, Matthew Fisher or Sam Cook. Dawson – or any other frontline spinner – would have been pragmatic cover in Australia for Shoaib Bashir, whose form was an accident waiting to happen.
Even the announcement of the Ashes squad was an anticlimactic foreshadowing of things to come.
Whereas the British & Irish Lions unveiled their Australian tour squad in front of 2,000 fans at the O2 in London, England hustled out their team on a press release with no notice a couple of hours after the death of legendary umpire Dickie Bird was announced.
When it came, the 12-month hokey-cokey over Ollie Pope’s place continued as he was replaced as vice-captain, adding further fuel to a Jacob Bethell debate that is still to be settled.
Director of cricket Rob Key did not speak to explain the squad until a full 24 hours later, at which point he ended Woakes’ international career, taking the moment away from the man himself.
www.bbc.com
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