English batters this Ashes seem indecisive and flustered, not looking a side playing with a single-minded purpose and utter conviction.
For the English batters, the heart seems unwilling and the mind unconvinced.
On the fourth day at the Gabba, Ben Stokes and Will Jacks’ persistent, if ultimately ineffective, resistance only served to highlight how mistaken England had already been; they were left wondering how they had ended up with little more than a bowl of soggy chips after taking a bite out of someone else’s steak.
During a collapse of 5 for 38 on the third evening, Stokes and Jacks’ partnership for the seventh wicket was worth 96 in 221 balls, the longest stand of the series for either side. It felt like England’s captain was personally criticising his hitters for their shot selection. “I just wanted us to fight,” Stokes remarked after they struck six limits together, one every thirty minutes.
Stokes has viewed batting as a chance to influence his teammates throughout his tenure as captain. He would start in fifth gear and seldom shift back down during his first summer on the job, scoring with a strike rate of 73.45. In 2025, he put the brakes on, showing the need for some middle-order ballast as his strike rate dropped to 47.67.
Even if the circumstances were simpler—the ball had softened and there were no vision problems throughout the day—it was a far cry from England’s strategy the previous evening. A perfect replica of Ollie Pope’s dismissal, the return catch that Zak Crawley chipped back to Michael Neser summed up the incompetence and demonstrated a complete inability to learn from mistakes made by others.
During his 41-run innings, Jacks had a few dubious moments, most notably when Australia used the short ball to attack him. Despite encountering more bumps on Sunday afternoon than in his 54 first-class matches for Surrey, he eventually gained confidence and formed a strategy after a few plays-and-misses. In other words, he picked up knowledge on the job.
However, far too many of his more seasoned teammates appear incapable of doing so: Harry Brook, whose choice to play a booming drive at the first pink ball he had ever faced from Mitchell Starc under lights was indefensible, and Crawley and Pope, who are both still making the same mistakes after more than 60 Tests each.
The most frustrating part of England’s problems, however, is that their batting lineup no longer seems like a team that is playing with complete conviction and a single-minded goal. With the exception of Brook, the majority of their dismissals in Brisbane resulted from clumsy strokes that were unsuited to the pace and bounce of the Gabba.
With each week that goes by, England’s early success under Stokes and McCullum—the stunning run of 13 victories in their first 18 Test matches, including the thrilling return from a 2-0 deficit in the 2023 Ashes—begins to resemble football’s new-manager comeback. They have lost as many Test matches as they have won since then, making them a coin-flip squad.