England are irresponsible, rubbish and too far up their backsides to care

Every great team needs one maverick who can make magic but it has to help you win. So far in tough moments Harry hasn’t helped England win, in fact he has given his wicket away. You get the feeling he is batting with a disregard for the team situation.

So far the penny has not dropped, maybe it never will. I hope not because it would be sad to watch a guy with once in a lifetime talent fail to grasp that the object is using that special talent is to win.

Ollie Pope in the first innings never gave himself a chance to get in. Third ball against a world-class fast bowler he was trying to cut a ball too close to his body and played on.

On a pair second innings, England in trouble and having to bat carefully to get out of jail, he tried to drive on the up to a good length ball and was caught and bowled. On the up! Can you believe it!

He just cannot or will not alter his batting to play to the situation and appears incapable of batting time and just waiting for the easy bad balls. You need to sell your wicket dearly. Too many times Ollie gives it away. Occasionally he has played some splendid innings but there are too many self inflicted failures. He never learns and he never fails to disappoint.

Well played Zak Crawley. In both innings I could see he was making a big effort to defend better, keeping his bat closer to his pad and letting the ball come to him. The problem for him and all the England batsmen is that for three years under McCullum and Stokes everyone has been encouraged to the point of insisting that the batsman attack so that it is ingrained in them all.

Finally, congratulations to Joe Root on his maiden Test century in Australia. A super controlled innings but second innings, probably out of tiredness, even he succumbed to a half hearted off drive to a ball he could have left.

I thought our first innings bowling was rubbish. Far too short with more than 250 runs scored in the third man and fine leg area. There were the usual thick edges that luckily went down and wide of the slip cordon but all the Aussie batsmen were pulling, hooking and uppercutting balls over the slips or belting it off the back foot through square cover. When England pitched it up they bowled easy half volleys.

Why were we not bowling in the corridor of uncertainty, searching for wickets around the fourth and fifth stump on a fuller length to create pressure? That is our strength, not bombarding the batsmen with short stuff.

I thought Brydon Carse was trying to knock a hole in the middle of the pitch. The Aussies knew what was coming and set themselves to smack it. Aussies love you to bowl short at them. Why have they not worked that out? Surely we are better than that. But no. What are all those back room coaches doing and the lads with the iPads that give the team statistics? It was so obvious. We should have bowled line and length like Scott Boland.

After his first two spells in the first innings, Jofra Archer lost his menace. His pace went down and the zip and snap of his wrist was not the same. I’m not sure if he is just out of puff or short of proper first class cricket. I suspect in racing terms he is short of a gallop or two. Since he has got over his injury problems England have wrapped him in cotton wool trying to make sure he is available for the Ashes and preferring to play him in only one-day matches. One-day cricket is no substitute for Test cricket where a fast bowler has to come back for a number of spells and has to field a great many hours more. Match fitness is vital.

Will Jacks took an amazing one-handed catch to get rid of the dangerous Steve Smith and in the second innings he made a gutsy 41. But if he is a Test match cricketer… no disrespect intended but he is a hit and giggle batsman in T20 and my Mum could play his bowling with my proverbial stick of rhubarb. There is no oomph or variation.

In that energy sapping heat, when the ball got soft and old, a proper spinner was required to save flogging the quicks. England had three fast bowlers and Stokes to bowl seam. What they required was a quality spinner and for me England made a mistake in selection.

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