Ricky Ponting’s choice words for hapless England opener Rory Burns resounded loudly in the English media on Sunday after Australia moved towards a 4-0 series win.
Ponting, himself run out famously in an Ashes Test – by substitute fieldsman Gary Pratt in 2005 – made a point of singling our Burns for a lack of desperation as he was run out for a duck.
“There had to be more desperation from Rory Burns,” said Ponting on Channel 7.
“He’s back in the side, fighting for his Test career, and he’s not willing to put in a big dive to try to save his wicket.
“I know it wasn’t his call but can you imagine Marnus Labuschagne in that same situation – he would have been diving from two or three yards out from the crease.”
Ponting’s blast was the backbone of the English coverage.
Rory Burns looks dejected after being run out by Marnus Labuschagne of Australia during day two of the Fifth Test. (Photo by Mark Kolbe – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
“This will come as no surprise but it has to be reported that England’s batting collapsed once again in an Ashes match,” said John Etheridge in The Sun.
“England are being hopeless right to the end. Opener Rory Burns – recalled to the side because Haseeb Hameed was in such wretched form – was run out for a duck.
“He barely made an effort to reach the safety of his crease, either.
“That set the tone and, sure enough, the rest of England’s batters crumbled in a way that has become depressingly familiar in recent weeks.”
Former England captain Michael Atherton, in The Times, saw wider implications of the Burns dismissal.
“The difference between the teams has been as wide as the oceans. Australia first, daylight second,” wrote Atherton.
“Yet, in cricket, there are always moments that are measured by tiny margins, too. An edge that might or might not evade the fingertips; a tight leg-before call or an out-stretched arm failing to a beat a direct throw by a millimetre. Just ask Rory Burns.
“But, when added up, small moments do reflect something of the way cricket is played in each country.
“What Ponting said about Burns was right, and reflects more broadly on two teams who have looked poles apart in the intensity of their play. Australia’s bowlers have been quicker, have hit the bat harder, have been more accurate; the fielding has been sharper, safer in the slips (although two catches were put down yesterday afternoon) and more urgent in the ring.
“England’s mantra has been that the series is a marathon not a sprint, and they have played that way, plodding along. With the finishing line in sight, Australia have already crossed it.”
Isabelle Westbury in The Telegraph said Burns’ experience made it an even more unforgivable moment.
“At 31 years of age and as many Test caps to his name, as well as averaging the same, he is a senior member of this England side,” Westbury wrote.
“On a tour which goes as wildly awry as this, Root needs as many of those members contributing, on the field and off it, as he can get. He has been sorely let down. Burns cannot afford to have an attitude problem as well as a performance one, not at this juncture in his career and with more ducks than fifties in the last year.
“The case for Burns’s defence is that he will not have expected to play again this tour. And he really should not have: he has had no opportunity to play himself back into form, no tour matches to rebuild confidence.
“Instead, he has had to resort to throw-downs in nets and Ben Stokes holding a camera phone from the umpire’s position. So rudimentary had it become that he even had local children taunting him as he received half-volley after half-volley in the Hobart Tests preceding this match.”
Andy Bull, in the Guardian, turned his focus to the soft dismissal of Ollie Pope, another badly out of form.
“Pope is not the only good young player who seems to have gone backwards since he came into this England set-up,” wrote Bull.
“Zak Crawley, who made 267 against Pakistan, is another, Haseeb Hameed, who made 82 against India on his debut, is another, Dom Sibley, who has scored centuries against South Africa and West Indies, is a third.
“Root is just about the only player in the squad who has played anything like his best while Chris Silverwood has been in charge. Giles and Silverwood might ask why English cricket is not providing their team with better players, but equally, English cricket might ask why Giles and Silverwood are not getting more out of the best they have been provided with.”
Simon Wilde in The Times, said England’s tour was going from bad to worse.
“One of the most depressing features of [the tour] is that the visiting side are by no stretch of the imagination failing better. No England side have won a Test in Australia since January 2011 and, barring a miracle in Hobart, that winless run is about to be extended to a record 15 matches,” wrote Wilde.
“England have shuffled the make-up of their team on this tour — there have been 12 changes across the past four games — but there are no signs of improvement. They are as far away from turning the impossible into the possible as they ever have been.
“Only in the car crash that concluded the defeat at the MCG and completed the surrender of the Ashes after three Tests have England been bowled out more speedily than they were in 47.4 overs on the second day of the final Test here in Hobart. What is more, most of these overs were bowled before dusk arrived and the floodlights fully came into play, which is usually when the ball does most. For the third time in the series no one managed to make 40.”
Former England seamer Jonathan Agnew, meanwhile, shrugged off suggestions that England’s late three wickets gave them a glimmer of hope.
Australia resume with a lead of 152 and seven second innings wickets in hand.
“You imagine Australia will now probably score the 100 more runs they need to put this game beyond England,” Agnew said on the BBC.
“Yes, anything under 300 is attainable but they haven’t scored 300 in the whole series.”
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