England's declining batsmen have suddenly imploded in Sydney

 
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4 January 2014

Among many embarrassing statistics, this one is hard to beat: Boyd Rankin, a No11 batsman playing his maiden Test, scored more first-innings runs against Australia here than the combination of England’s top order.

That’s right. A bowler with a first-class batting average of eight scored one more run – 13 – than the sum total of the contributions of Alastair Cook, Michael Carberry, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen. If you want to know why England are facing a 5-0 Ashes whitewash, look no further.

We can ask why Australia have been let off the hook so often in their first innings and for that, the blame would lie with captain Cook, his bowlers and fielders. Yet only once have the home team passed 400 in their first innings. It is not as though the tourists have been completely inadequate with the ball in the early periods of games.

How England solve their batting problems is, however, an entirely different question. A department that has been in gradual decline for some time has suddenly imploded, and the answers are not apparent immediately.

The pressure of captaincy appears to be taking its toll on Cook, while Michael Carberry has looked more and more uncertain at the crease as the series has progressed. Joe Root was dropped for this Test, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell have played some dreadful shots and Jonathan Trott went home with a stress-related illness after the First Test in Brisbane.

It is significant that in this match Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes, with five Test caps between them, looked far more assured than their more experienced colleagues. Perhaps the imminent five-month break from Test cricket is all Cook, Pietersen and Bell need to regain their composure. Perhaps, though, the reasons for their struggles are more complicated.

Here, Cook shouldered arms to a ball from Ryan Harris that swung back into him and had him plumb lbw. Bell was dropped first ball at first slip by Shane Watson and was eventually dismissed for a 32-ball two. Pietersen drove limply at Harris and that time, Watson made no mistake.

These are players with averages in the high forties. They need to do much better, not least because their poor performances are placing an unacceptable level of strain on the England bowling attack.

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest. Andy Flower insists he wants to continue as coach and the board have publicly backed him. Yet if the Zimbabwean feels he can no longer inspire players like Pietersen and Bell, it would be no surprise were he to have a rethink.

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