England in serious debt after Ashes and repayment must start now
Which version are we on now? Bazball 3.0? Bazball 4-1? Return of the Bazball? By the time England take the field for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's on Thursday it will be 145 days since their Ashes humiliation was completed in Sydney. Will they be wiser for the ex
Which version are we on now? Bazball 3.0? Bazball 4-1? Return of the Bazball?
By the time England take the field for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's on Thursday it will be 145 days since their Ashes humiliation was completed in Sydney.
If you've struggled to keep on top of everything that has happened in the past five months, let's have a quick refresher.
There were revelations about Harry Brook's night out in Wellington and a couple of lies to cover it up. Ben Stokes had his cheek smashed by a stray ball in the nets. England reached a T20 World Cup semi-final.
Jacob Bethell played in the Indian Premier League and can play in the first Test, Jofra Archer played in the IPL but can't play in the first Test. Ollie Robinson is off the naughty step. There was an Ashes review, after which the only person to lose his job was Zak Crawley.
You are probably tired of Ashes post-mortems, fed up of hearing about Lilac Hill, Snicko or Noosa. There is certainly no desire to ever see Travis Head cut another boundary.
But the Ashes hangover â pun intended â will linger over this England regime. It was Brendon McCullum who said the Ashes could define his team, while Stokes asked them to make history.
How were they defined? What history did they create? It is not an exaggeration to say this era could be remembered for the crimes against cricket committed in Australia, even if England do regain the Ashes on home soil next summer.
