England's Ashes humiliation spills over into the dressing room

England’s embarrassment didn’t stop on the field in Adelaide — it made its way awkwardly into the dressing room afterwards too.

England has a major area of improvement to work on. Photo: AFP and Twitter/@beastieboy07.

Same story, different team.

Just as Justin Langer forced Australia to re-watch where it all went wrong during the 2019 Ashes the day after Ben Stokes produced a final-innings miracle at Headingley, this time it was England who had to suffer through its own mistakes.

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The Guardian reports coach Chris Silverwood ran through the dismissals of his side’s specialist batters during the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, putting them on the TV in the dressing room as some home truths were delivered after the match.

Too many English batters have been out nicking balls they could have left across the first two Tests of this series. Almost all of the top seven — including captain Joe Root — have been guilty of fishing outside off stump, desperate to feel bat on ball.

As reported by The Guardian, wicketkeeper Jos Buttler — who survived for more than 200 balls on day five of the second Test — spoke up around needing to maintain discipline about which balls to play and which to leave throughout the course of an innings, highlighting the patience shown by Marnus Labuschagne as he posted triple figures for the Aussies in the City of Churches.

Vice-captain Ben Stokes was reportedly also vocal as England dissected where it had gone so wrong.

Leaving looked to be a priority for Root during a net session at the MCG on Thursday ahead of the Boxing Day Test, as the skipper set up a marker as a fourth stump to help him better judge where his off stump was — and what deliveries he could afford to let go.

Joe Root setting up shop with a fourth stump. Clearly working on leaving the ball better. #Ashespic.twitter.com/GfSfVxRUJJ

— Andrew Wu (@wutube) December 23, 2021

England's tour has gone from bad to worse. (Photo by Patrick Hamilton / AFP)

England’s batting has been abysmal so far, failing to reach 300 in four innings, but its bowling hasn’t been much better — a reality pointed out by a frustrated Root after going down 2-0 in the series.

“I don’t think we bowled the right lengths,” Root said. “If we’re being brutally honest, we needed to bowl fuller.

“As soon as we did in that second innings, we created chances. We need to do that more, we need to be a bit braver, get the ball up there a bit further because when we do, we’re going to create chances and make life difficult.

“That’s one of the frustrating things because it’s something we did four years ago and got it wrong and we didn’t learn from it. We made the same mistakes last week (in Brisbane) – we just have to be better and we’ve got to learn those lessons very quickly.”

English journalist Lawrence Booth said what plenty were thinking. “Root admitting England should have bowled fuller in the first innings. Good of him to say so, but staggering that they made the same mistake as they did four years ago,” he tweeted.

Ex-Australian captain Ricky Ponting had no sympathy for Root as he pointed the finger at his bowlers, saying if the 30-year-old wasn’t happy with what they were delivering he should have stepped in and taken action.