ANNIHILATION: It was statistically England’s worst 5-0 series thrashing by Australia. The tourists lost 100 wickets for 2,030 runs at an average of 20.30. PHOTO: AFP
Australia completed a 5-0 clean sweep on Sunday, routing the hapless tourists for 166 off just 31.4 overs to carry off a 281-run victory in three days in the Sydney Test.
Such was the magnitude of the series defeat that major ramifications are expected for English cricket, just months after they beat Australia 3-0 in England.
Flower said he would not identify individual players facing the chop, with reports that high-profile batsman Kevin Pietersen, one of the big English failures in the series, was under pressure.
Pietersen was dismissed for three and six in the final Test to finish with 294 runs in the series at 29.40.
Flower, who has said he will not be standing down as team coach, said he was prepared to make tough decisions, while admitting the nightmare series was the end of an era.
As well as speculation over the future of Pietersen, wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who was dropped for the last two Tests, could also face the axe.
“I’m not going to discuss individuals, but looking at it a little more holistically, I think it will be the start of something new,” said Flower.
“I think Alastair Cook as captain can lead that renewal and rebuilding of the England cricket side.
“It’s quite a bitter pill to swallow. But that’s what it is and we have to face up to that reality.”
Cook said after the Sydney defeat that he knows what it takes to rebuild shattered England.
He said he has been given a vote of confidence from the England and Wales Cricket Board to continue as captain as England look to regroup after sliding to fourth in the International Cricket Council rankings.
“I am desperate to try and turn it around,” he said. “I feel as if I am the right man to do it.”
Australian media hail ‘Unchangeables’
Australia’s media on Monday hailed their cobbled together bunch of rejects and recycled players for their decimation of England in a crushing Ashes series whitewash.
“Never before in 137 years of Test cricket has Australia decimated England so completely, winning the fifth Test inside three days to finish with all 100 English wickets in a series for the first time,” said The Sydney Daily Telegraph’s Malcolm Conn.
“And they did it as the Unchangeables, taking the same XI players through all five Tests after the selectors recalled man of the series Mitchell Johnson, and his closest rival for the award, Brad Haddin.”
The Australian’s Wayne Smith said English opener Michael Carberry’s bat snapping in half as he pushed forward to defend on Sunday was rich in symbolism amid the carnage of the team’s final collapse of the series.
“Perhaps, in the absence of the real symbol of Ashes supremacy, Carberry might be prevailed upon to leave his wounded bat here on these shores as a treasured reminder of one of Australia’s greatest Ashes triumphs,” said Smith.
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