The England cricket team is a formidable outfit in white-ball cricket, but some of their performances in Test cricket in 2021 have been dire to say the least. India dominated the English in Test series at home and away (one Test remains to be played) while Australia are handing them another beating in the ongoing Ashes series Down Under. England's batting in Test cricket has left a lot of to be desired, and a stat, shared by a journalist on Twitter, shows just how bad they have been this year.
In the 28 innings they have played in Test cricket in 2021, England have been bowled out for under 200, 12 times.
Former Australia cricketer Damien Martyn, reacting to the tweet, wrote: "Clearly something is wrong. From a batting point of view just look at the 2021 batting averages for England."
Other Twitter users too expressed their shock at England's woeful batting performances in 2021.
While the rest have floundered, England Test captain Joe Root has been on a record-breaking spree. He has scored a whopping 1,680 runs this year. Root's tally is the third-highest by a player in a calendar year behind only Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf (1,788 runs in 2006) and former West Indies skipper Sir Vivian Richards (1,710 runs in 1976).
The fact that Root has scored runs by the bucket loads, is a further indictment on the rest of the England batters.
On Sunday, the England batters once again faltered on Day 1 of the ongoing third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Root battled to yet another half-century before being dismissed by Mitchell Starc.
Some of the rest like Jonny Bairstow (35) and Ben Stokes (25) got starts but failed to make it count as England were bundled out for 185 in the first innings.
At the time of writing this, Australia, in reply, were coasting along nicely at 33 for no loss.