England Need To Do "A Lot Of Soul Searching", Can't Just Rely On Joe Root, Says Michael Hussey

With Australia retaining the ongoing Ashes series with an unassailable 3-0 lead, former cricketer Michael Hussey feels that England will need to do a "lot of soul searching" after disappointing displays. The visitors were poor in the third Test match in Melbourne and were bowled out for 68 in their second innings, losing the game by an innings and 14 runs. Speaking to Cricbuzz, Hussey stated that other than Joe Root, England don't have much positives to look at in the ongoing Ashes series. "Yeah, there's not too many positives to take out for England. I think obviously the year of Joe Root, he stands out as a beacon. But he needs some helpers. He can't, you can't rely on one man doing the job for you, you know game in game out. So I think they'll be desperately disappointed. They will be you know, shell-shocked themselves", he said.

"There's got to be a lot of soul searching and they are going to have to look at a lot of things you know with the way they are prepared for this series you know. I know the schedule is tough but the preparation from both teams has been compromised."

In the third Test, Root was his side's highest run-scorer in both innings with a half-century and knock of 28 runs.

Hussey further suggested that the England Cricket Board (ECB) could also analyze their county cricket system and check if it was helping to produce Test players.

"They are going to have to go back further and look at their county cricket system as well and say is that an environment where they can help produce Test players to play you know, against the likes of Cummins and Starc, who are bowling very quickly and are very skilled bowlers you know. There's a lot of things that need to be looked at", he said.

"Obviously they have been a bit unlucky with no Jofra Archer and couple of other little  injuries along the way. Ben Stokes has had a very compromised preparation as well but you can try and make as many excuses as you want at the end of the day, the Australian team is much better than England at the moment", he further added.

England and Australia announced their playing XIs on Tuesday morning. Usman Khawaja made a comeback to the Australian side while Stuart Broad replaced Ollie Robinson in the visitor's XI. Both sides are scheduled to face each other once again in the fourth Ashes Test from January 5, in Sydney.

Topics mentioned in this article

The Ashes, 2021/22 Joe Root Michael Hussey England Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Cricket