Ashes 2017/18: England's Assistant Coach Paul Farbrace Says It Has Been a Tough Time Down Under

England’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace believes that the current Ashes tour has been exceptionally tough for the tourists and he believes that all aspects English cricket must be reviewed after the tour. England stares at an innings defeat on the fifth day of the last Ashes Test as they were reduced to 93/4 at stumps at Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney. Australia took a commanding position by taking 303-run lead courtesy centuries from the Marsh brothers and Usman Khawaja. Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh scored their second centuries in the ongoing Ashes as they scored 156 and 101 runs respectively.

Moeen Ali was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets which included the prized scalp of Steven Smith. England had a horrible start to their innings as they lost Mark Stoneman for a duck. Alastair Cook, James Vince and Dawid Malan also their wickets before stumps as England trail by 210 runs with six wickets in hand. Joe Root and has men have had a very tough tour Down Under and have been found wanting in all the departments.

Farbrace spoke to the media after the fourth day:

“In many ways the last few days have summed up our trip. It’s been exceptionally tough, we’ve come up against a team that is playing very good cricket but the one thing that we’ve been talking about is making sure we keep on fighting and battling. Sometimes when you’re outskilled, all you can do is keep fighting and keep scrapping.”

England have had their moments but have been unable to capitalize on them throughout the series:

“We’ve talked a lot about getting in good positions but we haven’t been good enough over the course of day or innings to put Australia under pressure. From 230-2 to 340 all out where your tailenders are chipping in to get you to that sort of score, you know you are under pressure.”

Farbrace also said that they should start preparing for the next tour Down Under immediately after the end of the series:

“We have a choice. We either say we’ve had some really good positives or we say there are certain areas that are not good enough and we have to do something about it. That’s every single one of us. That doesn’t matter if it’s players, staff, structures, the way we prepared for the series. Everybody needs to look very closely and ask if we have the right people in the right places doing things in the right way.”

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