England’s media have slammed the paper-thin support cast to Ben Stokes who have let their captain down big time in the Ashes.
Apart from fast bowler Jofra Archer, the rest of the team has been savaged for their lack of effort in the third Test in Adelaide after the skipper had asked them before the match to “show a bit of dog”.
But with the team already down 2-0 and the Ashes urn on the line, they have turned up their toes, much to the disgust of the travelling media corp.
Oliver Brown, writing for The Telegraph, empathised with Stokes after his lion-hearted efforts with bat and ball to the point of exhaustion.
“Stokes is a man crushed by the weight of carrying England alone,” he wrote.
“While Archer has been the one stand-out performer, with an Adelaide five-fer in brutal conditions and a maiden Test half-century, the leader has been the only figure to show true endurance.
“As the scale of the task grew bleaker in the field, he lacked the ability to bowl a single over.
“The England players he commands are fragile, flaky, shown up at every stage by the Australians’ toughness and superior match awareness. The sheer toil of trying to keep them afloat on his own is threatening, day by draining day, to sink him altogether.”
Former England captain Mike Atherton, writing for The Times, said the tourists can kiss any hopes of regaining the urn goodbye.
“On Thursday at Exeter, a horse called Blowers became the longest-priced winner in UK racing history at odds of 300-1,” he wrote.
“Sad to report, my dear old things, that England’s chances in the Ashes right now are correspondingly slim.
“Will Jacks offered little control to the left-handers, picked off either side of the wicket, and it looked a threadbare attack by the end of the day.”
Jacks was targeted for scorn by several experts with the allrounder’s modest off spin treated with contempt by the Aussie batters.
“Optimists blathered gamely about England’s track record with big fourth-innings chases. Realists accepted what had already been clear on the second day: the Ashes are gone, and England have colluded in their disappearance,” wrote Daily Mail correspondent Lawrence Booth.
“It wasn’t meant to be like this. The question is, who will be held accountable?
“Time and again, Jacks dropped short, as if the ball had suddenly been weighed down mid-air. Time and again, he drifted on to the pads.
“Despite spending most of the day operating to left-handers, the off-spinner’s preferred option, he looked as unthreatening as any slow bowler can have done in 141 years of Test cricket at this beautiful old ground.
Will Macpherson at The Telegraph was also unimpressed with Jacks’ output.
“Jacks finished day three with figures of one for 107 from 19 overs, to follow two for 105 from 20 first-innings overs. In Brisbane, Ben Stokes trusted him with just 11.3 of Australia’s 117.3 first-innings overs.
Given what England are selecting Jacks for – a bit of this, and a bit of that – they cannot even complain with his output. This is not to knock Jacks at all. He is a fine, willing cricketer. But he is a batsman, mainly a white-ball batsman, who bowls a bit, and fields well.
“Spin was always the most predictable chasm between the teams, but the first three days of this Test has made it look wider than ever.”