5 reasons for England’s Ashes defeat

England’s hopes of hanging on to the Ashes urn Down Under have disappeared after Australia took a decisive 3-0 series lead on day five in Perth.

Here, Press Association Sport considers how and why the defence has evaporated with two Tests still to play.

Discipline

Cut to the quick

England proved in 2010-11 that a raw pace barrage was not essential to victory in Australia, but the greater weight of evidence suggests it is certainly pretty handy. Australia’s seamers are uniformly quicker than their counterparts, with others waiting in the wings, and in the absence of sustained movement through the air the touring attack has looked pedestrian and repetitive. Anderson and Stuart Board are champion bowlers but have not threatened the top order consistently, while it is hard to imagine a youngster of Craig Overton’s physical dimensions being allowed to settle for 80mph nibblers were he taught in Sydney rather than Somerset.

Root cause

A successful tour for England always required a major showing from their captain, Joe Root. Widely accepted as the class act in a hastily-assembled top six, he has mustered just 176 runs in six innings. His opposite number and peer on most pundits’ ‘best in the world’ lists, Steve Smith, topped that in a single knock at the WACA. While Smith has been imperious and immovable, Root is beginning to face questions about whether the captaincy of a side in transition is too much to place on his shoulders. Draining spells in the field cannot have helped him at the crease and his failures have fuelled the Australian surge.

Moeen missing in action

Missing piece