Former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy expressed his disappointment with how England have played so far, calling their performance “deflating”, and suggested that a lack of preparation for Australian conditions has resulted in the visitors being 0-2 down in the Ashes series.

“It’s a very deflating performance so far,” Healy told SEN. “The optimism we had before any contest was very high. We thought that this was going to be the close Ashes [in Australia] that we’ve been craving since the 60s.