England were not ready for Ashes cricket, which is unforgivable

Good evening and welcome to live coverage of day five of the third Test of the 2025-26 Ashes series from Adelaide which begins with England in the forlorn position in a must-win Test of 207 for six, 228 runs short of victory. For two sessions yesterday it seemed like they were going to make an inspirational last stand, highly unlikely to win but symbolic of brighter days ahead. Sadly that all came crashing down after tea when the masterly Pat Cummins lured Joe Root on to the rocks and shipwrecked the innings then Nathan Lyon removed Harry Brook, with the vice-captain an accomplice in his own downfall, Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley who can take some solace from being undone by good ‘uns. It leaves England, who avoided the quick kill, with Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue to audition Casabianaca, ‘the boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled’.

There’s no real disgrace in losing to this bowling attack in Australia. Mitchell Starc, Cummins, Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Nathan Lyon have been magnificent, backed up by Venus fly-trap catching and a keeper-batsman joining the ranks of his illustrious predecessors Ian Healy, Adan Gilchrist and Brad Haddin for his impeccable glovework and ability to turn the screw with the bat. But let’s be fair, they, and the great Travis Head, have carried Messrs Weatherald, Labuschagne, Green (as a batsman), Inglis and Doggett. The difference being that only Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes can reflect on their work with genuine pride though there have been nuggety contributions at times from Crawley, Root and Josh Tongue. Barring rain, they will have lost the series in 11 days, just like Nasser Hussain’s side in 2002-03, who, by virtue of Michael Vaughan and Andy Caddick managed to win at Sydney, a victory that heralded a new beginning under Vaughan.

There will be plenty of time for pieces on the future of this regime and its mainstays over the next few days and all will have the flavour of post-mortems. The most disappointing aspect is, like the plaintive wail in Three Lions, ‘I know they can play’, at least much better than this. Like most cricket lovers I have friends who have spent fortunes to be out there and have been around the block too many times to lose their minds about it. We’ve seen it so often before. What remains is a yearning for England to do themselves justice and that would start with giving themselves the chance to do themselves justice with better judgment and adherence to the basic principles. At times Australia have been as streaky with the bat, even Head and Carey, as England’s batsmen but have got away with it. With the ball and in the field Australia have shown the only way ahead on these pitches is patience, discipline and never giving a sucker an even break. They did it in 2010-11 and are yet to come close since, hence the queasy prospect of another whitewash on the most unforgiving of tours.

Last knockings start at 11.30pm GMT.