Hello dear readers,

It’s your local, mostly friendly, cricket correspondent here, Mikey P, taking up the kind invitation to throw a few Ashes thoughts onto these much respected pages. As a former player at Club level and cricket nut with a distinct preference for the 5 Day game (well, 2-3 days currently….) I’ve seen a good amount of Ashes encounters over my many years, both here and Down Under with varying degrees of success but always with absolute captivation.

I was starting to put together a post on tomorrow’s Third Test in Adelaide but given the week-end’s truly awful events at Bondi I’ve been more than a little derailed understandably. Anything I write about the two events that talks about hope prevailing would sound pithy at the very least, and at worst cringeworthy, yet at the core of it all is a belief that life, and cricket, must go on per my host’s preceding piece and we must always keeps things in perspective. As a frequent visitor to Oz with many dear friends, and family, down there I want, and need, to offer my heartfelt condolences at this crazy and sad time.

So, 2-0 down with three to play….. A hopeless position some will say while others will look/hope/ pray for miracles such as this Bazball crew have produced on various occasions in the past few years. This time it’s different though. This is the Big One, the Ashes, and it’s in the Aussies’ back yard and let’s be honest it’s not been our most successful of hunting territories over the years..

In brief England have so far been woeful in their application but brilliant in their ability to throw away match-winning positions. Bowlers haven’t had the required rest between innings thanks to our batsmen, in many key moments, failing to recognise the difference between T20 and Test discipline.

All this despite a largely average Aussie bowling attack with the exception of Starc. Adelaide, where England have only won nine times, brings them the return of a strike bowler and Captain in Pat Cummins with spinning wizard Nathan Lyon back in the side too while England replace Atkinson with Tongue. Travis Head plays at his home ground and with Steve Smith now released of the burden of captaincy, something that never sits comfortably on his self-interested and ever-busy shoulders, we can expect them both to be looking to make a statement or two.

England skipper and talisman Stokes has called on his band of men to “show a bit of dog”. Let’s just hope it’s more Rottweiler than Chihuahua. While Bazball has had its moments of utter amazement and success it’s brought far too much inconsistency and lack of application and lessons have failed to be learned, if indeed they’ve even been offered.

We’ll eagerly await the opening bell with the usual hope and belief of course, but there’s urgent need for a reality check. Let’s hope our boys have also got the same message.

Come on England !!!!!