England simply have to do something about the top 4. Cook is alright, but the other 3, at least 2 of them need to go. You simply cannot keep being 3 wickets down every innings for 30-40 runs and expect to win games. It's regardless of bowler quality, opposition, wicket. It's happened against West Indies, New Zealand, and Australia, it kept happening last summer too. Lyth just isn't very good, Ballance I like and his record prior to this was good but doesn't look comfortable against genuine pace so is pretty much useless against Australia, and Bell just looks useless against everything at the moment.
The bowling attack was pathetic too and pretty much gave up but they at least have one good game in the bank.
I'm unsure about Bairstow's mentality, much like the current batsmen he doesn't have the attitude you need to win the Ashes, that ability to dig deep. But his form deserves a chance, he's by far the most in form county batsmen so he should be in at a minimum. I'd also have Compton in for Lyth. England just need two openers who can see off the new ball, Compton is unspectacular but he does tend to stick around to see off the new ball, albeit scoring very slowly.
I do fear this team has had it now though, this was the exact kind of performance we saw in Australia. The team knew they'd lost one innings into the game and tamely accepted defeat.
