When England and Australia last squared off against each other in the marquee Ashes series in 2021-22, the Baggy Greens annihilated the Three Lions and ran Joe Root's team out of their country. Australia dominated the five-match series right from the onset and handed a 4-0 series defeat to England that ultimately forced the latter to rejig their approach in Test cricket. England speedster Stuart Broad came up with an interesting reason while defending his team's humiliating defeat in Australia.
Broad stated that the Covid-19 rules stopped England players from socialising and training in an optimum manners which ultimately played a role in the team's embarrassing outing Down Under.
"Nothing was harsher than the last Ashes series. But in my mind, I don't class that as a real Ashes," Broad was quoted as saying to the Daily Mail last month.
"Nothing about that series was high-level performance because of the COVID restrictions. The training facilities, the travel, not being able to socialise. I've written it off as a void series," he added.
As the two teams are gearing up to re-ignite a century-old rivalry, Australian pacer Mitchell Starc responded to Broad's comments and underlined that the England team was provided with top-notch facilities and even had their families with them.
"The funniest thing out of that was they called it quarantine on the Gold Coast. I did seven of them. That was the easiest by a country mile," Starc was quoted as saying to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The Poms had the pool, the gym, they were in a resort on the Gold Coast, they trained at Metricon (now Heritage Bank Stadium), weren't confined to their rooms and had their families there.
"Was that really quarantine? They were still allowed to play golf on tour. Is that an excuse for 4-0? Dunno. It was a pretty good series to be a part of," he added.
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