Are England Serious?

GH wonders

The English teams that have visited Australia since 1862 have been good and bad, feared and derided, but none have so quickly developed a reputation for insularity, bordering on arrogance, as those of 2025-26.

We’re packing up here

Anybody can lose a Test match; nor is it unprecedented to do so in two days. But there is some expectation on a touring team, especially an Ashes touring team, to look like it cares, and to pay some heed to the footsteps in which they walk. Ben Stokes’s team is not just falling short of that mark; they betray no sense of knowing that a mark exists. They may be, on paper at least, the most competitive English team in fifteen years. But their lackadaisical air is endearing them to nobody.