Ashes 2021-22: Robert Craddock on England’s latest collapse, plus the series impact of Nathan Lyon

The ever-revolving pace battery has been at its rampaging best for this Ashes series, but Australia’s dominance owes a lot to another member of the bowling team.

What’s going to come first on Tuesday … Australia winning the Ashes or the halfway point in the series?

When a Covid interruption is your main hope of saving a Test you know you’re in serious trouble.

Drinks in the middle session on Tuesday is officially the halfway point of the five Test series and there is just a chance Nathan Lyon might well be singing a rousing rendition of the team song by then.

Lyon deserves that honour.

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Nathan Lyon (left) is Australia’s leading wicket-taker for the series. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Without any great fuss or fanfare he has taken 12 wickets at 20 in the series and was Australia’s leading wicker-taker until a rampaging Mitchell Starc took two wickets in two balls to move past him by one as the shadows lengthened before a boisterous crowd on Monday afternoon.

Stuart Broad saw it coming. Before the series he candidly told News Corp “we have to stop kidding ourselves we play Lyon well because we don’t — we really have to think about how we play him.’’

Yet they didn’t and Lyon has continued his steady stream of solid Ashes results.

It was just one of many flawed areas in England’s preparation.

Australia has done extremely well this series.

There were fears that having no Test play since the last Test against India at the Gabba last season may leave the home side rusty, but instead there has been a fresh edge to their play.

They are a hard side to beat because each day there seems to be a new hero – one day it’s Marnus Labuschagne starring, then David Warner or Travis Head.

Starc has been brilliant and so has Pat Cummins with Jhye Richardson stepping up in Adelaide, while Lyon all the while chips away, his very presence reminding England of what they are missing.

Mitchell Starc ran rampant at the end of day two. Picture: AFP

As much as Australian fans can prepare to rejoice it’s been chastening how bad England have been in the series.

We were warned their batting techniques were bad … but not so bad that their openers were rendered almost shotless to the new ball as the ferocity of Australia’s pace and bounce rattles them.

England has won one of their last 11 Tests. By the end of this series that is likely to be one from 14.

If that was Zimbabwe or Bangladesh it would be embarrassing.

But this is England, the spiritual home of the game and the second most wealthy cricket nation after India.

They should be better, even in basic areas such as catching, running between wickets and positive body language.

If, as seems likely, England surrender the Ashes on Tuesday, heads will roll in the way they always do after landslide Ashes results.

Coach Chris Silverwood could be the first to go.

Poor Joe Root deserves great sympathy for having to bail out England every time he bats.

Root is a magnificent player and arguably the best batter we have seen against spin since Brian Lara.

But it does reach a point where he can only take so much. Ben Stokes might be worth a try as captain if only to let Root concentrate on his most important function for the side – making runs.

Australia has great challenges ahead with three tours of the Indian subcontinent in the next two years but the confidence of this team is rising and they ready for a fresh challenge.