England finished a punishing third day in Brisbane six wickets down, still 43 runs shy of making Australia bat again, yet assistant coach Marcus Trescothick was in no mood to abandon the side’s preferred method. Speaking to TNT Sports after stumps, he stressed the camp would “remain focused on how we try and win the game”, even as a 2-0 Ashes deficit looms large.
England had begun their second innings brightly, reaching the dinner break on 48 without loss. The session under lights turned the match. Ben Duckett, beaten by a ball from Scott Boland that kept low, went first. Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley then miscued full deliveries from Michael Neser – virtually a carbon copy of the Perth collapse that opened the series – and Australia never loosened their grip.
Joe Root lasted 46 balls before Mitchell Starc pinned him on the crease, and late wickets for Harry Brook and debutant Jamie Smith left Ben Stokes and Will Jacks as the last recognised batters. Australia’s 177-run advantage at the change-over suddenly looked plenty.
“They’ve been better than us today, and they’ve dominated today,” Trescothick admitted. “They’ve put us under a lot of pressure, and it’s always challenging when that happens.”
The assistant coach’s tone stayed calm, almost reflective. “We’re trying to score as many runs as we can. We’re trying to take wickets when we can. In certain areas, we probably haven’t been as good as we need to be, for long enough. And we’re trying, obviously, to do that and trying to put that right all the time.”
It is familiar messaging from a back-room set-up that prizes consistency of approach. During the 2024 tour of India, spin coach Jeetan Patel famously claimed “nothing was impossible” on the eve of Ollie Pope’s match-winning 196 in Hyderabad. The language has not changed, even if the circumstances have.
Pope, again, is at the centre of the debate. Having raced to 24, he survived two ambitious drives off Brendan Doggett, then lobbed a gentle return catch to Neser. The timing left England 66 for 3, and the innings never recovered. Trescothick, though, refused to single the vice-captain out. “Of course, we work with them as coaches,” he said. “Myself, Baz [McCullum] will talk with them about what we’re trying to” – the sentence tailed off, a nod perhaps to conversations better kept behind the dressing-room door.
From a distance the numbers are stark: across two Tests England have lost 12 wickets to catches in front of square, nearly all from forcing drives. Yet some context is worth adding. The Kookaburra pink ball has offered exaggerated seam movement in the evening sessions, and the Gabba surface, left slightly tacky by intermittent rain on day one, has produced variable bounce. Both Duckett and Pope were beaten by balls that either skidded or leapt. Even so, Australia’s discipline has been the decisive factor. Pat Cummins rotated Starc, Boland and Neser with measured precision, each spell peppered with a short leg or a leg gully to keep the batters second-guessing.
Former England opener Mark Butcher, on commentary duty, felt the touring side might have been better served by a touch of restraint. “It’s not about going into your shell,” he said, “just recognising a phase when four an over isn’t realistic and leaving a few alone.”
The challenge now is survival. Stokes showed in Perth that he can bat long even with a sore left knee, while Jacks has a hundred on this ground for the Lions. Realistically, though, England need another 120 simply to make Australia chase anything at all. With two full days remaining, a draw looks remote.
Trescothick refused to talk in those terms. “Fairly philosophical about what we’re trying to do,” he said earlier, “not quite operating as we need to at the moment.” That concession felt as close to public frustration as this dressing room is willing to offer. The message is clear: stick to the plan, hope the execution finally matches it, and, if nothing else, leave Brisbane with batting habits that give the series some life.
