Ashes 2017: England’s bowling coach leaves camp as Vaughan calls for Stuart Broad to be axed
ENGLAND’S fast bowlers find themselves stranded without a shoulder to cry on as they limp to the final stages of the Ashes tour.
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ENGLAND’S fast bowlers find themselves stranded without a shoulder to cry on as they limp to the final stages of the Ashes tour.
Fast bowling coach Shane Bond left the England camp before the failed WACA Test and is now on full-time duties with the Brisbane Heat meaning he will play no further part in guiding England’s shattered attack.
Respected former captain Michael Vaughan has called for Stuart Broad to be immediately axed for Boxing Day, and Craig Overton is fighting to overcome a cracked rib.
Meanwhile, serious questions are being asked in England about why the England and Wales Cricket Board seem incapable of producing fast bowlers that are actually quick.
Knowing how imperative quality fast bowling is to winning in Australia, it seems extraordinary that the ECB would hire a specialist coach unable to mentor the attack for any more than two Test matches.
Spearhead Jimmy Anderson appeared to take a swipe at former New Zealand paceman Bond after Adelaide when he made a pointed reference in his newspaper column to the coaches not giving the bowlers enough direction on what lengths to bowl.
England’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace admitted midway through the WACA Test that his team simply don’t have the cattle to compete on Australian soil.
The innings loss in Perth has left England in crisis – looking to blame each other for the mess – and staring down the barrel of another damning 5-0 whitewash.
Vaughan says England have nothing left but to plan for the future, and that should start with long-time Ashes pantomime villain Broad – a man already eyeing off a post-career transition into television – being given his marching orders.
“If Stuart really does have a dodgy left knee, and we are told he had fluid drained from it last week as well as an MRI scan, then do not play him,” Vaughan wrote in his column for the UK Telegraph.
“Go into Melbourne without him or be brave enough not to pick him for the New Zealand tour (coming up) if Joe (Root) believes he is not bowling well enough.
“Stuart has not bowled well all year. Taking 25 wickets at nearly 40 is not good enough for Broad, particularly given some of the wickets he has bowled on.
“He has not bowled in Australia to the standard he would have liked so maybe the call is to leave him out for a while.”
Vaughan fears a nightmare scenario where Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Alastair Cook all retire at once – the type of triple blow that cruelled Australia in the mid-2000s when champions Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer called it quits together.
Former Australian Test player and gifted Triple M commentator Kerry O’Keeffe has gone further than Vaughan and called on England to put the broom through the entire team.
O’Keeffe says five players should go for the Boxing Day Test.
“If I was England, I’d panic,” said O’Keeffe on Triple M.
“I’d drop (Alastair) Cook, (Chris) Woakes, (Stuart) Broad, (James) Vince and Moeen Ali.
“Sorry, they’re all gone.
“Cooky’s seeing it like a pea. Woakes is pedestrian unless it turns. Broad has lost interest in Test cricket, James Vince gets lovely twenties … and Moeen Ali turns less than me.”
England are in turmoil on and off the field, with captain Joe Root and coach Trevor Bayliss left as the collateral damage.
Former Ashes-winning spinner Graeme Swann has questioned the toll captaincy is having on Root.
Vaughan says the wreckage in Perth is the perfect opportunity – much like Steve Smith following the Hobart disaster last summer – to take control and demand the team he wants.
“This is Joe Root’s chance to build his own team from the wreckage of an Ashes tour that has gone wrong both on and off the field,” wrote Vaughan.
“He has the rest of this series … to identify what he wants his Test team to stand for.”