‘Can’t remember a worse touring squad in the last 20 years’ : Ed Cowan says Ashes not competitive anymore
Joe Root, David Malan (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Former Australia opener Ed Cowan has criticized England for their poor show and has labelled them the worst touring side in 20 years. The visitors are trailing 0-2 in the five-match series and need to win all the games to win the Ashes. England have hardly put up a fight against Australia in the two-Test matches in Brisbane and Adelaide.
They lost the first Test by nine wickets and went down in the second Test by a thumping margin of 275-runs. England have now lost a staggering 11 Test matches out of 12 in Australia since 2010-11. In the 2013 Ashes series, they lost 5-0 and in the 2017-18 series, they lost 4-0. Cowan feels the Ashes are no longer competitive Down Under.
“It is fair to say I genuinely can’t remember a worse touring squad in the last 20 years. Maybe the West Indies in the mid-2000s when they had that awkward transition. But this could be a huge blowout,” Cowan told The ABC Grandstand Cricket podcast.
“It kind of makes you sad because Test cricket needs great contests. It needs a strong England. It needs a strong Australia and it needs strong Ashes. We are not really seeing that at all.”
Cowan further opined that barring Root and Dawid Malan, the rest of the batters have failed to show application. He said the bowling looks a bit aged and there is no variation whatsoever. James Anderson Stuart Broad are on the wrong side of the 30s and have not looked menacing as they used to be.
“The bowling looks aging. It looks slow in parts and it looks like it lacks variation so there is nowhere to go,” Cowan added.
