Dire not fire: England's Ashes confidence seems misplaced after two days | Geoff Lemon

"As an Australian, even one lacking in cricket parochialism, it's flat to sit around the Perth CBD city centre on what should have been the third day of the opening Ashes Test but isn't. In the same way that this city of heatwaves is now being combed by chilly winds and rain, the whole thing just feels wrong. Through years of buildup, the current England team has raised the possibility of being different to those that came before. For anyone who believed it, even a little, it seems as if we all got hoodwinked."

"In my cricket watching lifetime, English visits have been a procession of the abject. This is not to claim any personal influence, merely to give a temporal window. But the length to which this lifetime has now grown does take the observation beyond the trivial."

"In 1986-87, when Mike Gatting's team won the series by the fourth Test, I was too much of an infant to notice. No one then could have predicted the disproportionate brutality of the decades to come. By 1991, there were a couple of draws, but three Australian beltings. By the end of each series in 1995 and 1999, England won a consolation match but lost three. In January 2003 the consolation win came after four defeats. Then the zip era began: a couple went 5-0, a couple went 4-0, either side of that single anomaly of a grand old England team whacking Australia 3-1 in 2010-11. One series win out of nine, six Test wins out of 45. All of which is to say, there were very firm grounds for a historically sourced lack of confidence that England would compete this time around."

Australian dominance in the Ashes has been pronounced over recent decades, producing repeated English defeats and few series victories. Historical results include heavy Australian victories, occasional consolation wins for England, and a period of consistent whitewashes. Recent English pre-series confidence and vocal optimism suggested potential change, creating raised expectations among observers. The actual performance and outcomes so far have felt like a disappointment to those who allowed themselves any belief in a different England, reinforcing long-standing doubts about England's capacity to challenge Australia effectively in Ashes contests.

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