Lack of cricket skills for Aussie conditions and not Bazball leaves England tottering

It's not semantics, optics, philosophies, a revolution, or buzzwords. It's not about the bluster or the brashness. And it's not about Bazball.

England have lost the first two Tests of the Ashes series because of the cricket they've played—ordinary and not up to the standard required to challenge Australia at home, even with the home team missing key players.

The batters, with a couple of exceptions, have not come to grips with how to survive or score in these conditions. The bowlers have not come to grips with how to defend or attack consistently on these pitches. Their catching in Brisbane was woeful.

There have been untoward dismissals, unimaginative bowling spells, and crucial moments where England handed momentum back to Australia on a platter.

This English batting line-up isn't the first to falter in Australian conditions against seasoned bowlers. They're not the first to succumb to driving on the up outside off-stump, struggle to keep Australia under pressure when ahead, or have bowlers lose the plot on a pitch with extra bounce.

But with this English Test team, it always becomes about them, often due to the external noise around their style of play. Even erroneous skill execution or lack of game sense gets attributed to aggression or "running towards the danger."

The batting collapses in the first two Tests came from batter errors, mainly questionable techniques for these conditions—whether forcing the ball square or not picking length quickly enough, like Ben Duckett's dismissal in the second innings at the Gabba.

This is dramatically different from the audacious shots and frequency of attempts during the 2023 Ashes at home. That England team took aggressive batting to the extreme, throwing the textbook out. Here, there's a collective lack of skill to get the best out of batting on Australian surfaces, which involves humility to let bowlers earn the right to force the issue—as Stokes and Will Jacks did splendidly on Sunday afternoon.

Their bowlers haven't been able to bowl dry overs effectively, like Michael Neser did on the fourth afternoon, partly due to conditioning and role expectations. England's stoic defence never translated into more, and Neser broke the game open later.

England's inability to build pressure across the last two innings has nothing to do with Bazball but with a lack of skills or talent.

The 0-2 deficit this time seems more dire than in 2023. Back then, Stokes talked about comebacks and moral victories after close Tests at Edgbaston and Lord's, with genuine swagger in the heyday of Bazball. Now, a less convincing Stokes spoke about clawing back in a series defining his team's legacy, mentioning no room for "weak men" and needing strong conversations, while trying to keep morale up before reassembling in Adelaide.

His best line was about being good at applying pressure but not reacting to it when applied on them. The fact is, they haven't applied sustained pressure on Australia for it to even be a talking point.

The Jonny Bairstow stumping incident at Lord's galvanised England when down two-nil in 2023. Some wondered if Jofra Archer's verbals against Steve Smith or Stokes going after Jake Weatherald were attempts to incite an incident for galvanisation this time. It didn't work.

It won't matter what they do next—whether they train too little or too much. Brendon McCullum didn't look pleased seeing Jamie Smith having a hit with Marcus Trescothick a day after his batting duties ended. It won't matter what narrative they come up with to resurrect their sinking campaign, or what they do in Noosa.

Their only way back is finding a way to genuinely combat Australian conditions and an ever-improving Australian team, which will welcome back world-class players in Adelaide. Based on what we've seen, they don't possess the collective skills to do so. The writing for this campaign derailing completely is on the wall.