Joe Root cops brutal grilling after horrendous batting collapse

England captain Joe Root has faced some difficult questions in the immediate aftermath of his team's resounding 4-0 Ashes demolition at the hands of Australia.

Australia got to celebrate with the Ashes urn after wrapping up the series 4-0 with a 146-run win over England in Hobart on Sunday night.

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The visitors suffered yet another collapse, 10-56, in Hobart after sitting in a good position following their opening partnership of 68 (the biggest England Ashes opening partnership in eight years).

England's second innings debacle followed capitulations of 10-61 in the second innings of the MCG Test, 8-74 in their second innings at the Gabba and 8-86 in the first innings of Adelaide.

Former captain Michael Vaughan was quick to call out England for their lack of fight in the Hobart Test.

Root would have expected an inquisition into his role as captain and the England outfit, but it came swiftly from former player David Gower.

"Today, really disappointing, some really soft dismissals in there," Root said on BT Sport.

However, Gower wasn't going to let it slide and pointed to a Test against India 12 months ago, which followed a similar line of the first innings in Hobart where England allowed the game to slip away from them.

Gower asked Root if he had the full support of his team during these times.

"Look, I think I have. There are going to be occasions when you don't perform. Guys don't quite get it right," Root added.

"What's probably impacted on it as well is that we haven't scored runs to give our bowlers opportunities."

Gower asked Root what needed to change if performances didn't improve and the England captain was forthright.

"I think there are number of things that have to change, some long-term things that have to change," he said.

"We've got to learn quickly, if you want to survive at this level you've got to learn quickly."

Finally, Root added: "We need to sit down and look at the direction English cricket needs to take."

Root said he wanted to lead England into the next chapter as captain, which would include him potentially opting out of the IPL auction to help Test cricket.

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Following the loss, Vaughan said England had "just thrown the towel in", while Shane Warne called it “tough to watch”.

Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7: “Tough batting conditions it has to be said, but to fall over like that, that probably just sums up the entire summer for this England Test cricket team.

“Not enough quality, not enough fight and they haven’t been able to grasp the big moments in this series like the Australians have.

"Fitting way for it to end as well, for the series to end. Captain Cummins with the last wicket, to walk away with a four nil series win to Australia.”

England legend Ian Botham said: “It’s been embarrassing, if I am honest, gutless.

“I thought the way that they performed today will have disappointed me and disappointed everyone back home. They should be disappointed in that dressing room as well, with the performance.

“The one thing we have to do now is take our heads out of the sand and we need to pull together and prioritise red ball cricket and get back in, because if we’re not careful the Eskimos will be beating us.”

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