It's Not the Despair....

CP rues England's hopes

It’s kit in the bin stuff.

With the initial shock wearing off, anger and irritation is taking over. It wasn’t until a colleague of mine described this as a loss England players will regret for the rest of their careers did the scale of the cock-up settle in. England don’t win in Australia, and from a position where they were 105 ahead and only one wicket down after lunch on the second day. They lost. On the same evening.

Shellshocked is the word everyone - fans, players and journalists alike - are using. England and Stokes were quick to praise Travis Head’s phenomenal innings. And without doubt, it was spectacular. But allow me some sour grapes for a moment. It is an innings only possible when a team is chasing two hundred rather than three. In his own words, Head said that his elevation to open the batting in place of the crocked Usman Khawaja was a free hit.

“I could’ve quite easily been out in the first over,” he said to Channel Seven. “It didn’t really matter.”