Michael Vaughan believes a good beginning to the Ashes tour will be extremely crucial for England, who could otherwise be in for another “5-0” hammering to Australia.
“I think this England Test match team are the kind of side that if they get on a roll and they get playing well, they’ll be fine. But if they start badly – so get out of Brisbane having got a hammering – it is going to be a long tour. This series could be 5-0,”
he told ABC Sport on Friday.
The 46-year-old added that England fans and experts need to be more “realistic” with their expectations of Joe Root’s side that lost 4-0 on their last Ashes trip to Australia back in 2017-18.
England had historically won 3-1 on their 2010-11 tour, but if one focuses on other series outcomes either side of that for this century, they reflect deeper systematic flaws. The Three Lions lost 4-1 in the 2002-03 series, 5-0 in 2006-07 and 5-0 in 2013-14.
England’s batters have struggled to stitch together long substantial knocks at the crease against robust Australian attacks, and their bowlers have failed to extract the kind of seam and swing movement that they produce with the Dukes ball in home conditions. Since the start of 2000, England have had a batting average of 29.65 and a bowling average of 42.86 in Australia.
Vaughan said the key for England will be Root’s batting and whether the skipper can “install some of his methods” of making big hundreds into other England batters.
But despite having foreseen a 5-0 scoreline if England makes a poor start, Vaughan thinks the visitors will still fancy their chances against an Australian side that are not short of weaknesses themselves.
The ex-captain turned commentator cited the example of India’s last two trips to Australia, where the Men in Blue giants defeated the Aussies 2-1 in both 2018-19 and 2020-21 editions.
“I don’t think they are anything like an Australian side of old. I think they are a good team, (they’ve) got a very good bowling attack but they’re certainly vulnerable,”
Vaughan concluded.
