On hindsight it’s a lot easier to assess a team’s performance. And with Aussie delivering the knock out punch at Melbourne it’s all set for a 5-0 Ashes white wash. Doing a post mortem of why England failed would be letting the cat among the pigeons.

Facts first, England as a team has been spineless in their attack except for Monty Panesar who was considered only after loosing the first two tests. On the batting side it was just Cook, Collingwood and Pieterson who delivered in patches. The rest just succumbed to likes of Warne, McGrath and Lee.

Test teams need their vertebrae – a solid opening pair, at least one other top batsman, a counter-attacking six and seven, a strong captain, a settled wicketkeeper, and an exacting new-ball pair was what was needed for the hour.

One felt that England was suffering from a mental block before the Ashes begun. Not once there was an instance where one could say that England looked in command except for the 2nd Test at Adelaide where they scored 551/6 declared and yet managed to loose it.

All fingers point towards the captain Andrew Flintoff. He hasn’t been a strong captain: he relies too much on gut instinct, as he calls it, and not enough on his considerable brain. Not long ago pundits had described him as a perfect successor to Michael Vaughan but now that Vaughan is all set to make a comeback can he revive the team.

Being a weaker team is fine but giving in meekly to your oldest rivals is just not on Mr. Fletcher.