Strauss says sacking Stokes, McCullum will not solve England’s Ashes woes

LONDON: Former England cricket chief Andrew Strauss has warned that removing coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes will not be enough to change a “depressingly one-sided story” in Australia following another painful Ashes defeat.

Strauss, 48, was the last England captain to win an away Ashes series, when his team triumphed 3-1 in 2010/11.

Since then England’s record has been pitiful – they have lost 16 and drawn just two of their Tests in Australia.

McCullum and Stokes are under pressure after the visitors went 3-0 down in the series on Sunday with two matches still to play.

But Strauss, England’s director of cricket from 2015 to 2018, has urged those within the game to avoid knee-jerk responses.

In the aftermath of England’s previous defeat in Australia, a 4-0 loss in 2021/22, Strauss led a high-performance review of the domestic game.

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His eventual report made numerous suggestions, including cutting the number of first-class matches, restructuring the domestic game and focusing on incentivising elite player development, but they were largely thrown out by the English counties.

Although he made no reference to the review in a wide-ranging post on the social network LinkedIn on Monday, Strauss appears to be arguing for a fresh look at such proposals.

“So there it is, another ambitious set of England cricketers made the journey to Australia, full of hope and optimism, only for their dreams to come crashing down around them after only 11 days of cricket,” he wrote.

“McCullum and Stokes will come under extreme scrutiny for the decisions they took in preparation for this tour in the same way that (Ashley) Giles and (Chris) Silverwood did after the last tour. And Andy Flower after 2013/14 and Duncan Fletcher after 2006/07.”

He added: “While they will know that this goes with the territory, none of the above are responsible for England losing so incredibly consistently in Australia since 1986/87. We have been badly mauled time after time over there because Australia are a better team, served by a better high-performance system.

“If we are genuinely serious about changing this depressingly one-sided story, then we need to look beyond sacking England coaches and captains and ask whether we are genuinely willing to make the changes necessary to break the trend.”