What went wrong for England in the 1st Ashes test match against Australia

 Australia thrashed England b 9 wickets to take 1-0 lead in the series

Australia thrashed England in the first ashes test at Gabba by 9 wickets to take 1-0 lead in the series. Australia draw the first blood in just three and half days. England were hoping to put up a decent score in the second innings after closing the third day at two down for 220 runs. Pat Cummins won the first test match as captain.

 England captain Joe Root and David Malan put up a brave fight on the third day and scored 86 and 80 runs respectively, but they failed to make a solid start on fourth day. 

Australian bowlers came back strongly on the fourth day morning and removed both the overnight batsman cheaply. 

 

But fourth morning saw another dramatic collapse of England middle order in which English team lost 8 wickets for just 74 runs. Australia scored the 20 runs target with loss of just one wicket.  

Alex Carey opened the batting as David Warner didn’t pad up after sitting out the whole of England’s second innings with severely bruised ribs, but he was dismissed by Ollie Robinson. Australia dominated the test match from the beginning and England never really recovered from the day one batting collapse. 

So what went wrong for England in the first test? Here are some  reasons of England's humiliating defeat. 

1- England captain made a wrong decision after winning the toss and decided to bat first on a greenish and bouncy pitch. This decision proved costly for England.

2- England made bad judgement and left out the two most experienced fast bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The  English fast bowlers Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood failed to make inroads into strong Australian batting line up. It was a bad decision by English team management. 

English spinner Jack Leach went for plenty of runs. Australian batsman went after him. 

3- Australian fast bowlers Cummins, Starc and   Hazlewood perform well and bowled out England for partly 147 runs. Pat Cummins was brutal and took five wickets. Australian bowlers used the pitch and conditions far more better than English bowlers. 

4- England failed to contain Travis Head and he scored quick 152 runs which turned the match around. Travis Head innings put England under pressure and England never fully recovered.  

5- Star English all-rounder Ben Stokes fails to impress in the first test match after his recovery from an injury. He is not in his prime form at the moment.  His failure in the match put extra pressure on the other players.  

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