'Didn't like that': England players under fire over post-match act
Former captain Michael Vaughan has taken aim at England's Ashes losers for abandoning captain Joe Root in the wake of their loss in the third Test at the MCG.
Australia wrapped up the Ashes in dominant style on Tuesday, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead after demolishing England by an innings and 14 runs in Melbourne.
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Befitting their calamitous tour, England's resistance lasted just 80 minutes on Tuesday morning as they lost their last six wickets for 22 runs to be all out for 68.
But it was the players' actions after the loss that riled Vaughan the most after Root was left to conduct the media duties on the field by himself.
After coming out to shake hands with the victorious Aussie players, everyone except Root quickly left the field.
“What I didn’t like as Joe Root was doing the press - I didn’t see any other England players out there,” Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.
“I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the fact they went straight down to the dressing rooms.
“Yes, they’re embarrassed, of course you’re embarrassed, you’ve just performed poorly and been bowled out for 68, but show face, get on the pitch and support your captain.
“The captain’s got to front all the questions now and has done, the team have got to be right beside him, even in the tough times.”
Vaughan said the current England side have "big problems".
“They’re a group of players that pride themselves on competing and they’ve just not managed to find any kind of consistency or skill," he said.
“They’ve not been able to manage this powerhouse of a team. The juggernaut started in Brisbane and they’ve not been able to stop the Australian juggernaut.”
England on track for embarrassing Ashes history
Root's shambolic team is careering towards Ashes ignominy, on track to become just the fourth England side in history to suffer a series whitewash in Australia.
Something drastic would have to change on-field - or perhaps the intervention of virus-related chaos off-field - for England to avoid the same fate that befell the touring teams of 1920-21, 2006-07 and 2013-14.
In the past, they have at least been in the contest with Australia's greatest Test outfit winning the impossible Test in Adelaide in 2005-06.
In 2013-14, England were in every Test before Brad Haddin often dug the hosts out of several holes.
But his time around, there are few excuses for an England team that finds itself 3-0 down after a comprehensive innings-and-14-run thrashing at the MCG.
The tourists' 68 all out on Tuesday summed up a horror three weeks since the start of the Gabba Test.
It means the current series has been decided inside 12 days of cricket - the fastest Australia have retained the urn since 2002-03 - and the hosts have now sealed the Ashes within three Tests in eight of the last nine home series.
"I'm a little embarrassed, to be honest," England great Ian Botham said on the Seven Network.
"To lose the Ashes in 12 days ... I just think that England have lost their way.
"The performance today summed it up. You've got enough time to get a couple of players in from the Lions tour because we need to freshen it up, at the moment it's stagnating."
England's only fight now is to try to avoid a 5-0 whitewash, but on current form that would require a miracle or intervention from the weather in Sydney and Hobart.
"Credit to Australia. They blew us away last night and have outplayed us through the Test match and series," Root said.
"We've got a lot of hard work to do to make sure we come back strong in the last two games."
with AAP
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