At the end of play on day 3, with England at 220/2, my mind went back to Old Trafford in July 1961. I was present on the fifth day. England needed 253 to win. Geoff Pullar, Raman Subba Row and Ted Dexter had steered England comfortably to 150/1 at lunch. England then totally collapsed to 201 all out before tea and Australia took a 2-1 lead in the series. I couldn't help thinking about that with England at 220/2, and sure enough we got a similar repeat in Brisbane. It must be in our DNA.
The main problem with cricket now is you have red ball,white ball and pink ball cricketers and nobody.The schedule is also crammed thus the Ahes now comes up every five minutes whereas it was always something to look forward too.Joe Root is far and away our best batsman but is definitely not a test captain.We need a captain who has learnt his captaincy trade on the county circuit.