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UK View: ‘Repeatedly trod on a rake that hit them in the face’ – Bazballers in a muddle over playing style

Admin December 26, 2025

England’s latest dreadful display has resulted in yet another pasting from their media after the team was criticised for not having a common plan.

While some bowlers pitched it up, Brydon Carse dug it in short. And some batters tried to survive, while Harry Brook went full Bazball.

In The Telegraph, cricket correspondent Nick Hoult thought England had yet again brought themselves undone after a promising start.

He described the end of the day when Scott Boland faced the first over of the third innings of the match as “an utterly bizarre end to a comical opening to the Boxing Day Test when a cathedral of cricket was turned into a circus tent”.

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“England played their part once again, by following two sessions of good play with one where they repeatedly trod on a rake that hit them in the face.

“This is basically a contest between two decent seam attacks and two iffy batting orders. The difference is that Australia’s bowling attack does not have a weak link while England have Brydon Carse.”

The Times cricket correspondent Simon Wilde also savaged Carse for his wayward efforts with the ball.

“This tour has repeatedly demonstrated how badly England have planned, how wide of the mark their tactics have been, and how much less skilful their players are in the basic disciplines of the game than Australia.

“There will be a dozen English bowlers watching from a distance who would have thought they could have bowled better on the first morning of this match than Carse.

“However this fourth Test pans out, and the fifth one after it, England’s careless planning in so many areas has cost them dear. In obsessing about hitting Australia with high pace, they overlooked what had actually been happening in Australian cricket for the past few years, particularly with pitches becoming more ‘nibbly’.

“The data was actually there for them to scrutinise, but they liked their plan so much that they stuck with it.”

The Daily Mail‘s Lawrence Booth said England did not know whether they were still committed to the Bazball ethos that Harry Brook adopted in his free-swinging 41 off 34 balls or if they wanted their batters to occupy the crease.

“We have entered a strange and probably fatal discourse for the Bazball era, with meek thin edges for low scores regarded as preferable to batsmen attempting to halt the one-way traffic by going on the attack.

“The losing team are always forced to address their shortcomings in a way the victors are not, but England should be careful what they wish for. Playing largely conventional cricket has led to one series victory in Australia since 1986-87.

“After the first day at the MCG, their biggest problem seemed to be that they no longer seem to know what style of cricket they were playing at all.”

Writing for The Independent, Cameron Ponsonby struck on a similar theme.

“For years, England have spoon-fed the public nonsense about running towards the danger, doubling down and going even harder. It has been utterly intoxicating.

“And yet in Australia, they blinked. Defeat in Brisbane led to Ben Stokes imploring his players to fight. He referred to his changing room as ‘no place for weak men’. The result has been a different England.

“Across the tour, their run-rate has been the lowest out of any of the 16 they have played under Stokes and McCullum. A considerable chunk of that is because of the quality bowlers Australia have on hand, but it is nevertheless indicative of where true, utmost, delusional self-belief has been tempered by a desire to do the ‘right’ thing.

“Naturally, it is easier to say this than to be in it. Stick to their guns throughout, fall in a heap like they did in Perth, and these same pages may read of a team that is stubborn to the point of stupid. But this England team block out the noise. They don’t care for others’ opinions because to do so would be to bend from the values they believe in, even if it hurts themselves.

“But as it happened, in Melbourne, they bent of their own free will.”

Barney Ronay in The Guardian said opener Ben Duckett and first drop Jacob Bethell were shown up by Australia’s new-ball pace duo of Mitchell Starc and Michael Neser.

He blamed ECB head of cricket Rob Key for sending Bethell on a hiding to nothing.

“Both batted like men groping for the light switch in the dark against a new ball that seamed the width of the bat at times.

“Key talked this week about “creating an environment” for players such as Bethell to succeed. Oh yeah? With this in mind you wondered here how different an environment designed specifically for him to fail would look? Blindfold him? Replace his bat with a sourdough baguette? Send him out covered in ants?

“No rational judge could seriously expect Bethell to succeed here, batting at No 3 on the pitch from hell, having been confined on management orders to three proper red-ball games in the last 12 months.”


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