Ashes | Ian Botham on England’s Bazball: ‘I’ll throw something at the television’

“It (Perth) was horrendous, there’s no other word for it. England needs to fire up and fire up quickly. I’m fed up of hearing, ‘this is the way we play’. If I hear it once more, I think I’ll throw something at the television. If that’s the way you play, you might as well go home now because it’s going to be 5-0,” Botham, 70, said to the PA News Agency.

“They probably won’t like me saying that, but they need to get their heads around it. I want more pride when I see people pulling that sweater on.”

In Perth, it seemed like Starc’s first innings spell would be a sign of things to come. But England fought well to dismiss Australia for 123 in their first chance at batting on a pitch famous for its assistance for the quicks.

But it was Travis Head’s gutsy century knock in Australia’s second innings chase that changed the tide of the two-day Test in the favour of the hosts. The Australians picked a leaf out of the book of the English batsmen who were efficient with their scoring rate in the first innings, if not for their wickets. Head, who has been out of form recently, batted himself back into an Ashes where the first Test may not be an indicator of how this series goes.

England next face Australia in Brisbane on December 4. Australia enjoy a formidable record at the Gabba but have dropped close Test matches to West Indies and India in recent years.