Stuart Broad States Reasons For Ashes Debacle

England pacer Stuart Broad has been disappointed with the way England have performed in the ongoing Ashes. After just three games, England are already 0-3 down and have lost the Ashes comprehensively with two games still to play.

Stuart Broad believes lack of match practice has been one of the main reasons why England failed to perform to their potential. According to him, a number of Australian players were playing domestic cricket and thus were in a better groove than the visitors. This is what Broad wrote in his column for Mail+:

“The reality is we turned up undercooked while Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland and Jhye Richardson were playing state cricket. Yes, like us, Australia had players at the Twenty20 World Cup until mid-November. But was it a level playing field? Not really.”

Broad also accepted that England have kept on making the same mistakes again and again which has led to their downfall. He added:

“Nevertheless, should we have done better? Absolutely. So we are frustrated with ourselves. It’s not like we’ve played amazing cricket for 18 months, then come into the Ashes and failed. We’ve been making the same mistakes for a long time. Both at home and abroad.”

Australia have been better in every department: Stuart Broad

Stuart Broad credited the Australian team for playing high octane cricket and being better than England across all three departments. Their batsmen scored enough runs on the board and their bowlers just didn’t give England any breathing space to make a comeback in the games. Broad stated:

“Over three matches, they have been better in every department. They’ve scored more runs, taken their catches, and bowled us out cheaply. They have thumped us in that regard. They scored more than 400 twice in the first two matches and then 267 in the third Test, which we didn’t manage in two innings.”

Broad also feels toss was a huge factor, especially in the second and the third Test. He added:

“We also lost two vital tosses in Adelaide and Melbourne. They were massive. I’ve never seen so much thatchy grass on a pitch than that at the MCG — enough to make bowlers drool and batsmen weep.”

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