I want to be crystal clear about this. There are no excuses for England's performances on this Ashes tour. But there are reasons why things have turned out as they have.
Before I chart them, I must make clear that this is not an easy column to write. I'm sure most people will know the feeling when the job's not going well, and you're feeling a bit flat emotionally. Well, imagine having to assess why.
Both the energy and the mood in the camp is low. At the start of the tour, I said, partly tongue in cheek, that our preparation was at best average. Unfortunately, the truth in that statement has come to pass. Australia is one of the hardest places to win in Test cricket — look at the percentage of previous England victories here. To do so, everything needs to go in your favour.
Stuart Broad has reflected on where things have gone wrong for England on the Ashes tour
Broad has only played in one Test so far and has admitted it is frustrating to be left out
Unfortunately our displays have reflected our preparation. Imagine Tiger Woods rocking up at the Masters having not played for four months, spending time in a bio-secure bubble and then seeing his entire practice rained off. He hasn't played a single round of golf, yet he's still expecting to win. Would you bet on him in those circumstances? No, you wouldn't.
Part of the reason things feel so down within our camp is that while Australia are a good cricket team, they are not the best we have faced here and I still feel that, without Covid, an opportunity existed to do something special.
However, the reality is we turned up undercooked while Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland and Jhye Richardson were playing state cricket. Yes, like us, Australia had players at the Twenty20 World Cup until mid-November. But was it a level playing field? Not really.
Nevertheless, should we have done better? Absolutely. So we are frustrated with ourselves. It's not like we've played amazing cricket for 18 months, then come into the Ashes and failed. We've been making the same mistakes for a long time. Both at home and abroad.
Yes, at times we have bowled well, and the Hawk-Eye data will tell you that we've pitched the ball in the same areas as Australia. But that is not what Test cricket is about.
Over three matches, they have been better in every department. They've scored more runs, taken their catches, and bowled us out cheaply. They have thumped us in that regard. They scored more than 400 twice in the first two matches and then 267 in the third Test, which we didn't manage in two innings.
We also lost two vital tosses in Adelaide and Melbourne. They were massive. I've never seen so much thatchy grass on a pitch than that at the MCG — enough to make bowlers drool and batsmen weep.
Broad says England's preparations, where matches were lost due to rain, hindered them
England have also lost two key tosses which has helped Australia to control matches
I saw Shane Warne walking out to the middle on the first morning when the groundsman Matthew Page was marking the crease. 'Matt, a quick game is a good game,' he
