Former England captain Michael Vaughan remarked that the team made the same batting mistakes that they made back in the 2023 Ashes after they lost the Perth Test on Saturday. Australia took a 1-0 lead in the series with their comprehensive 8-wicket victory at the Optus stadium over their arch-rivals.
The match came to a conclusion in just two days with Travis Head and Mitchell Starc being Australia's star performers. While Head's phenomenal century on Day 2 saw the Baggy Greens chase down the 205-run target comfortably, Starc also contributed vastly with the ball and recorded match figures of 10/113.
Vaughan wasn't satisfied with England's batting performance in Perth and labelled the defeat as "bloody disappointing."
"England made huge mistakes with the Bat in 2023 at the start of Ashes series … they went 2-0 down … they have made exactly the same mistakes here … it’s bloody disappointing," Vaughan wrote in a post on X.
England's dismal performance with the bat
The Three Lions were indeed poor with the bat in the first Test and posted low totals of 172 and 164 in the first and second innings respectively. Though the Australian bowlers did perform brilliantly, the England batters also played some incredibly poor shots and threw away their wickets on important stages. If it wasn't for Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse's unexpected 50-run stand, then they wouldn't have even posted a target of over 200. This was also the lowest target ever posted by a team in a Test played at the Optus stadium.
2nd Test to be played in Brisbane
Meanwhile, the second Test of The Ashes will be played in day-night format at the Gabba and will commence from December 4. It remains to be seen if Australia will go on to maintain their superb record against England in Brisbane or if the visitors will fight back and will manage to level up the series.