Online Reporter
HINDSIGHT is wonderful.
It provides satisfaction, comfort and expertise. It is much easier to dissect a decision than to make it. Talking and writing about sport in hindsight is more straightforward than playing sport in real time.
England are at the point of confronting hindsight. At 2-0 down in this Ashes Test cricket series, anything other than a win over Australia in Adelaide this week will lead to a lot of recrimination on the journey to Melbourne, Sydney and beyond.
Hindsight is not casting a favourable light on England’s Ashes warm-up plans or preparations for the pink-ball game in Brisbane.
There was the decision not to try a specialist opener when Zak Crawley got injured in 2024, dithering over Ollie Pope and Jacob Bethell at number three, not bringing a specialist back-up keeper to the Ashes, or another front-line spinner alongside Shoaib Bashir.
Hindsight would suggest a specialist fielding coach might have been useful in Paul Collingwood’s absence from the backroom staff, and that putting Brydon Carse in a Perth hotel attached to a casino was not the best move 18 months after he served a ban for historic betting offences.
And there is the mid-series break in Noosa. Hindsight has yet to catch up with that one. It could prove to be a stroke of managerial genius, or turn out to be English cricket’s equivalent of the football team in Baden Baden during the 2006 World Cup.
Perhaps hindsight has slapped England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum in the face.
In the aftermath of the defeat in the second Test in Brisbane, there was talk of weak men and glass jaws.
But Stokes and McCullum have made their bed with the culture of this England team, and now they must raise their sleeping team from it.
How often have we heard the leaders speak of “removing the pressure” from Test cricket, hoisting an umbrella over their men to shield from the reality and expectation of international sport.
Sometimes the only way to deal with bad weather is to get wet. Now England are soaked to the bone.
At this moment, a Test that Stokes admitted is the most important since he became captain, the management have changed their tune. Stokes even talked about “enjoying the pressure” in Adelaide when he spoke to BBC Sport yesterday.
Bar Stokes, Joe Root and Jofra Archer, every England player in Australia was either saved by, given a debut by or dragged out of the wilderness by the Bazball regime.
Therefore, this culture is all they know. Good vibes, running towards the danger, golf courses.
McCullum has regularly said that these players should be having the time of their lives representing England, which is a fair point. Enjoying Test cricket is great, but so is winning.
Stokes has suggested that part of England’s struggles has been a result of players new to touring Australia not coping with the challenge of playing in this country. Is that another issue the management could have predicted? — BBC Sport.
