‘Sitting ducks’: Collingwood defends England after Ashes bubble fatigue

Paul Collingwood has launched a remarkable defence of England’s players who were thrashed by Australia in the Ashes, saying their preparation for the series and the gruelling effect of two years in biosecure bubbles meant they went into it as “sitting ducks”.

The assistant coach also believes that the tourists never had a chance of succeeding, that despite their poor performances they “deserve medals not criticism”, and that the series “was one step too far”.

The manner of England’s defeat led Joe Root to call for a reset of a county system that he says is failing the national team, the England captain saying that “anyone that’s coming into the Test team is doing it in spite of county cricket, not because of it”. But Collingwood, three times an Ashes winner as a player, suggested the main cause of the team’s failure lies elsewhere.

He said: “I reckon if you had given us the best England cricketers from the last 100 years and put them in the same environment that those boys have lived in over the past two years with the preparation that we had going into this Ashes, even then they wouldn’t have had a chance.”

Collingwood had particular sympathy for those who came to Australia straight from the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates: “It’s the equivalent of the England football team being asked to go to a World Cup, then from that bubble into the Euros. Would you expect a performance from that scenario? It’s ludicrous.”

He believes that for all the talk about the impact of bubbles on cricketers it remains significantly underplayed. “You can’t even explain what it’s like until you experience it,” he said. “In 2020 we went into the Ageas Bowl and Old Trafford, and they don’t bring back nice memories. I’ve been scarred by