The final Ashes Vodcast! | Key, Nasser, Atherton and Ward reflect on the 2022 Ashes Series

This vodcast lasted longer than England's batting.

You guys should've included Djokovic in this vodcast, it took Australia 2 weeks to get him out.

Michael Vaughan was right, England have an unhealthy obsession with the Ashes and that is their downfall. You spend years planning for Australia and get thrashed, it sucks the confidence out of the players going to the Carribean. Good luck on your rebuilding England. Kudos to these four blokes, they are absolute top class.

Mark Wood was the stand out man. He bowled his heart out whenever he was given the ball. That dude has the heart of a LION.

Thanks for your insightful and well articulated cricket views.
As an Australian supporter there is the pleasure of beating the old enemy. But also there's a sadness that the Ashes excitement from great competitive English teams and players has been absent for so long. Those monumental competitions are the ones that become etched in the sports lover's memory, bring the most prised and valued victories.
As for Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Rob Key I'm glad they're not on the ECB board. They would bring too much common sense that might make England overly competitive.

As an Australian, I really do enjoy listening to English commentators’ analysis of a match/series. They tend to be more insightful than Australian commentators (Ricky Ponting the exception). In saying that, you don’t need many words to describe this series for the English, just the word abysmal would suffice.

Oh yes. Was waiting for all this since yesterday. Can listen to Nas and Athers all day. Key and Wardy are very good too. And the sad part is English batting didn't last as long as this vodcast. And I have a question, why don't these vodcasts reach England team and help them make a better decision ? Surely, Joe Root has to watch this.

The ideas Rob Key throws in are worth listening to. I enjoy these vodcasts because of him. He's top class.

You can listen to these guys for hours and not be bored.

This is the most brilliant Vodcast. Ward hosts it very well by asking the right questions. Long may this continue.

There was optimism going in to this series, but anybody that's watched England in tests over the past 2 years realistically knew we never really had a chance. This was a whitewash in all but scoreline

As much as the series was depressing, I’ve actually been waiting for this. The frustrating thing is that we’ve kept Warner and Smith pretty quiet compared to previous Ashes series, especially in Australia. I hope this is the rock bottom that will see our test team sorted out for the better. The hope is that we see something similar happen to when we were last at rock bottom in the Caribbean in 2009. The difference then was that we had genuinely world class players in KP, Bell, Strauss, Cook, Prior etc. We don’t have that now. It’s going to be a long job and we need to appoint the right coach and people in charge.

I like Rob's thoughts on the structure of the season. That makes perfect sense. I cannot see any reason why that shouldn't be done

I was happy to be able to watch SA India series that finished few days ago, nice to watch competitive test cricket and forget about the embarrassing shambolic England debacle.

Most Aussies like me feel a little the same, really glad we won an Ashes series easily - but a bit disappointed there wasn’t really any competition.

These vodcasts are unmissable. Just love Rob Keys passion and he talks alot of sense 👏

Probably won't miss the series but sure will miss these vodcasts.

I’m surprised no one mentioned the technical and temperament flaws of the England players.
The SA/ India series saw bowler friendly decks but the batters who succeeded showed good technique and a lot of guts. There was very little of that on display from the English team.

Great vodcast, love listening to this panel. England are a shambles but I do believe we have the players and talent to be much more competitive and challenge against better teams. It could actually be an exciting time ahead......however we are run horrendously by incompetent management including Giles, Silverwood, and Root. Under them there will be no progress!

Excellent solution presented by Rob Key and he is spot on with making age group cricket free for all.
Good discussion but he shined today in this debate in his analysis not to say others were not good either.

Mark Wood was fantastic in this game. Crawley showed promise.

More than the test match was waiting for this panel to discuss what happened 🤘🏻 thanks sky 😄

As an Aussie, I would just have liked to see England fight it out a bit more in the 5th test.

The solution to this seems obvious to me: split the formats completely, in the same way as Rugby League and Rugby Union are completely different disciplines. That way, the schedule crowding doesn't matter because no players will be playing cross-format, reducing the amount of cricket played by each player, and money from the white ball game can subsidise the red ball game. The only issue would be managing fixtures within the available grounds, but most counties have more than one ground they play some games at, anyway.

loving the vodcasts! been great to hear from past english stars. amazing detailed insights on english cricket..

going to miss this … you guys have been fantastic !

As an Aussie, here is my take :
- At the risk of sounding like captain obvious, it is the batting that is clearly the main issue for England.
- Bowling out Australia for 155, they again had chances in this Test match as they had in every Test, but the batting let them down again.
- The problem was the same in every match, they would have a good batting partnership, 1 player would get out, then the team collapses.
- They just needed to play cautiously and get through the difficult night session, then they could attack the target during the day. They played some bad shots, another batting collapse, game over.
- However, I don't think we can gloat too much. We have a good record here in our conditions but we haven't won in England since 2001.
- England can fix their red ball cricket. They have shown with white ball cricket and the olympics, if they really want to focus on fixing something, they can do it.

As a Test Cricket fan, I just loved the insights!

I enjoyed watching this Vodcast than whole Ashes series. There was no literally competition from English team given to Aussies. Our C team beat Aussie and English is struggling against them.

Quite understandably, there is never a mention of the lack of terrestrial tv coverage of Test Match cricket. Think back to 2005 and the nation was gripped due to Channel 4 broadcasting the matches live and the grounds were full! That is when young cricketers get inspired.

Was greatly looking forward to this breakdown. Good stuff as usual. Red ball cricket needs switching up.

As a triumphant, but far from conceited Aussie, congratulations in all sincerity to you four blokes! 👏🏼 Terrific vodcasts, by four intelligent, articulate, cricket savvy gents. I hope to see England rebound down the track. As it is, it’s just not cricket is it?🤭👍🏼😎🇦🇺

I love Cricket, I have done since the '05 Ashes but I don't understand how the English Cricket summer is organised, seems to be all over the place. If I knew when games were on & it was structured properly it would be hell of a lot easier to follow. Well said Rob.

Nasser seems like he's about to cry. So bloody passionate! Would any of these guys be willing to take the head coaching job? They've clearly got the brains for it.

These vodcast were more interesting than the ashes.

1 hour...oh yes! The only thing more disappointing to me than English batting was the fact that a batter got the MC medal. Like there were so many options to choose from in the bowling. I personally would've went with Starc.

Four sensible guys with a deep love for the game. Let's hope the ECB is listening. Please keep up these vodcasts.

Really waited till yesterday. Finally here it is! The Best cricket Vodcast!

Nas is spot on. I took my son to play on Mumbai. He played in a 30 over game and the boys rocked up to play technically correct cricket. It was beautiful to see. Mind you our team still scored 239 for 8 in 30 others.

I absolutely LOVE this group, hopefully Sky Sports keep them for all TEST series that England plays.
Thank you guys, please bring an episode for Australia vs England Women Test match too!

Aussie here..... the analysis is great... good to always hear the perspective of the opposition. Delivered perfectly and professionally. I hope the ECB listens... as much as as I love the aussie victory... i still think the value is in the competition.... one sided series are only so fun.. ........

I’ve enjoyed these vodcasts more than the series.

Was so looking forward to this ! Loving it

Great work to all concerned. All 4 are a credit to our unique sport.
Hopefully the decision makers are listening to these knowledgable people.

As usual Athertons points hit the nail on the head.
It was a sprint, prepare and play your best team for the upcoming test. England were not in a position to save certain players for specific test matches.

Great analysis and discussion. Test cricket will always represent a far greater challenge than the white ball game. There would be very few true legends whose reputation is solely on the basis of performances in the one day, let alone the twenty over form. Whatever its merits, a comic book does not have the scope of a novel for drama, narrative or development of character. The same for short form vs test cricket. But players have to continue to aspire to it. That’s not about playing one form off against the other. It’s about how people want to see themselves as players and who their role models are.

Love Rob Key’s ideas near the end of the video. Totally agree with it.

"The pink ball test we allegedly win but never do" LMAO Nas

These guys are genius … cricket analysis is fantastic compare to any other, by far … I would love watching them in a Netflix series 😊

Short term thinking is sometimes useful. When I first got into cricket Thorpe was out of the team with personal problems. Thorpe was 34 and had played 79 tests, a lot of people thought it was time to move onto the future with the team Vaughan was building (Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood and Strauss had yet to debut). They brought Thorpe back, he got a hundred in the last test against SA, four more and an average of 56 for the remainder of his career.
*I am well aware there isn't a Graham Thorpe lurking in the shadows of county cricket.

I love the passion from nasser and Rob. They really care about the game as much as the fans , maybe even more

Hi All great vodcast, very honest and to the point. As an Aussie our team has it's problems, mainly in the batting. But one point that think is not being considered is the 2019 Ashes.
We very confident of winning that series we didn't want a draw it we expected to win it. England forcing a draw has hidden so of the problems in English cricket and made our boys more determined to win

Naseer and Atherton ...are on another level of cricket Genius Experts Unbiased gentle Classy brief etc.....
You can listen to them whole day

This make me watch cricket with some more awarness and knowledge. Thank everyone for giving these kind of brief analysis. U guys r awesome 💪🏻✌️💯

the 4-0 in 1991 is different to this version of 4-0 loss in 2022. you might have to select 3 dedicated teams for each version of the game. a dedicated test team, t20 and 50 over teams. otherwise im sure athers can come out of retirement and show them how to bat all day.

Clearly part of the problem is that there are too many “good blokes.” England needs someone with a bit of mongrel in them. Australia are blessed to have a coach that has that. JL has been a huge part of the recovery of Australian cricket since the sandpaper controversy. Having a coach as a selector can’t be a thing, what player is going to go to a coach for advice when they know that coach is also a selector. Joe Root is not a captain, his bowlers clearly don’t listen to him. Mark Wood has been the one bright spark for England this tour. As an Australian this seres has been disappointing. I’ve seen England lose 5-0 out here and still be far more competitive.
You want something that should be an easy fix, fix the fielding. England’s fielding has been largely dreadful. Make it a priority.

Good suggestions from Keys on restructuring the county game.

Surprisingly no one mentioned James Taylor taking the bulk of selection decisions sitting thousands of miles away in the UK from the team in Australia. He also got A LOT wrong

The notion of Broad as an interim Captain sounds good actually. Remember, it was him before the sydney test , spoke candidly to media about Englands batting and I think I saw man who really cares about test cricket and was hurting. Sure , he acts selfish at times in terms of his place in the side but he believes he can make a difference and he DOES prove himself more often than not. Moreover, has a really good cricket nous. Oddly enough i see a bit of Kohli in him...

Loved the interview!
Last position in the WTC table and still joe root requesting a chance to continue his captaincy is something you guys can appreciate because he loves test cricket. So you need that love and passionate for this team. But you guys need to change the structure. That’s all true.

Good on yer Keysie. Tell it like it is 👏👏👏

So you want England to do well. Fine, it might sound superstitious, but do this vodcast at least weekly going forward as well. Ha ha.
On a serious note, please continue this vodcast. I speak for a majority of cricket lovers at least here in India, that not only you guys knowno cricket, your analysis is soothing to ears as well. We get chance to see and hear pure cricket and nothing else only with you guys at least for now.
So please continue. Thanks

England have had a lot of issues especially in Test Cricket.
A lot went wrong for England.
Selection, preperation, structure, planning, personnel etc. The idea that a person (Silverwood) can be a coach, selector etc all-in-one package is ludicrous.
There were signs of in-fighting. Batsman blaming bowlers & vice-versa. The captain not stamping his authority with poor tactics/field settings etc.
Rotation / chop & changing the team.
Now the blame game will begin however you cant blame the counties as they were not the ones who picked the team.
However there is a change needed in the county championship in terms of when its played & pitches provided.
The red ball game needs repairing & most important need to be showed its love & respect because the white ball format is having all the glory at the minute.
There wont be enough time for an inquiry, especially as the next test match vs the West Indies is round the corner.
England are favs for the test series vs the Windies, however England have only won one test series in the Windies backyard in 50 years with their last success being in 2004.
Root is a great cricketer however he is not fit to be a test captain. James Vince needs to be (test) captain.
Silverwood may be a great coach in the white ball however in red ball, his record is atrocious. He should be replaced by Gary Kirsten especially as a test coach (at the very least).

Expat Aussie here (now living in UK) enjoying this immensely on one level, but also on another level just shaking my head at how bad the England team were across the entire series. But for a bit of weather, would have been a whitewash, and that would have really been a true reflection of the series. England were simply appalling and things have got to change in their system - root and branch (pardon the pun). If they do not change, the ashes could soon be redundant. In fact test cricket itself could be under threat, and if you lose that, you lose the backbone and soul of the game.

All I can add is that it’s a good job for this miserable bunch of no hopers that the late great Bob Willis departed this life far too early.
I would have loved to hear his comments on this bunch of talentless failures and the current clueless management structure.
A great loss to cricket!

Excellent and very honest analysis 👏

Im saying this from my own experience. I grew up in Maidenhead near Reading and was in the Berkshire colts squad from the age of 11 to 16 and never got to play a game, me and 1 of my m8s who was of caribbean descent were always the 1s to miss out. This isnt bitterness i used to be an opener and for 3 out of 6 years had a batting avg in the top 5 consistently and had a really bowing avg but never got a go. Cricket hasn't just got a racism problem, elitism is a better description it links both ur race and ur background

Just want to mention how good these discussions are, and that is coming from a Norwegian-pakistani cricket fan!

The amount of criticism and love for cricket could be seen in the face of these people is Amazing. They are just brutal honest can’t see anyone bashing there team like this in India.
@starsports we need something like this

these reflection talk throughs have been more enjoyable than the actual test cricket.

The issue with England batting is the over reliance on Joe Root and Ben Stokes , this was clearly shown when these two got out early in the 2nd inning of 3rd test and 5th test where the rest of the batting line up got out like sitting ducks. This is what happened to us Sri Lankans when Sanga,Mahela and Dilshan were playing and once they all retired we were in trouble for quite some time.

England's bowling wasn't atrocious, they need better spin options though..
the batting on the other hand is diabolical - borderline non-competetive

All through the last 2 years, Eng kept rotating and resting players focusing the ashes, all the while neglecting the series at hand....and when the D day came...anticlimax!!!...😳 Feel sorry only for one man....the machine...Ben Stokes😰😰😰....Eng should have taken a leaf out of how India handled the famed Aussie attack, despite not making 500 plus scores all the time...☺️

Really liked Rob Key’s structure for county cricket, I could see that working tbh

I love how close they were to calling out the hundred for the absolute mess that it is then remembering they worked for Sky and having to heap faux praise on it.
The ECB's bullheaded manner in pursuing that nonsense whilst neglecting the pitfalls of test cricket is a national disgrace. And for what? A competition that was milked for being full of electric atmospheres despite being played in half-empty stadiums and those they did get in were more often than not free tickets given out to local clubs to market the "younger audience" image.
Time for the ECB to go back to basics.

Only one missing in this vodcast Bumble would have loved to hear his thoughts and can you imagine Bob wills bless his soul

Ashes is also a contest between the two oldest cricket institutions and how they have been preparing, and what is the state of their cricket structure..! That's why it hurts!!!
Was it possible to send the Ireland team to play Ashes instead of England?!!
Had England gone in with no hopes except for mischief to cause delays in Australian wins (nothing too irritating), and had taken it slow and not rushed it-- got a good tan!!... then they might have fared better!!!

As an Aussie supporter I actually hoped England would win that last test. As Nasser said, our batting team is very brittle (as exploited by the India B side last year) so was hoping a loss would shake things up (ie a new coach for one)

SA and India provide a clue when there isn't sufficient batting talent available.. Both sides went with 5 specialist bowlers to focus on their strongest suit for the conditions ie fast bowling. Also the opposition would likely not prepare such sporty pitches facing guys like Archer, Wood, Stone, Broad.. Sadly injury prevented such selection. In future I feel England should choose these guys as the main bowling foursome with Anderson rotating with Broad.

Athers got it spot on. Mirror the international schedule, ditch The Hundred, a pointless competition that no other country plays.

Nasser Hussain you are favorite commentator, I really love your verbal communication skill. Not only that I try to apply this in my corporate life.. Long live NASH…

One can keep listening to these discussions without being bored a bit. Nasser is just brilliant. ❤️

Crawley , Root , Stokes ( when fit ) and Bairstow were the only batters I'd keep on . Wood , Broad , Anderson ( when fit ) for the bowlers ...

Love Keys honest answers, needed.

I found it strange that they didn’t consider Paul Fabrice when talking about England coaches. He was in the previous set up, knows the players and (unlike the previous coach) loves Test cricket.

It all comes from the top trickles down to the youngsters start producing fast pitches and oh yes players willing to fight not wanting to come home early give those who travelled to support them there money back.

As an Indian fan.. i can feel what england are going through. But kohli and shastri (2 aggressive mindsets channeled), root and silverwood are defensive mindsets which doesnt work out in tests. Get an agressive coach or captain and u can see results. Just dont bank upon swing bowlers like anderson and broad. U need bowlers like wood in australia and SA

How on earth did English cricket become so fascicle! Really sad how its all ended up. I hope they learn from this and create some consistency and mental fortitude with players, you would think all these big shots were paid to these simple things, geez...

keys love his cricket he is so passionate about England's cricket ..

Finally was waiting for it eagerly 🤟🤟

I just wonder, having listened to these well thoughtout and well expressed comments, why am I hearing all this again! Why are people like these not listened to and another structure put in place ? How often have we heard these discussions over the years - as fans, we deserve better. Is it that we have those at the top that are not up to it?

Great team Mic..., Nasser..., Rob Key.., & Ian...., have discussed in depth and broke the egg shell to unearth the areas requiring attention. You really have some very good players though not all in the present team that visited Australia. Test Cricket need good players who can adapt to all round situations. But above all I would suggest that you need to discreetly examine by means of friendly questionaires, the cohesiveness in the English team

18:50 🤣 spot on. Data sport scientist geeks who haven't picked up a bat are involved in making key decisions. Too many cooks spoil the food!

I don’t buy that Silverwoods ‘rotation’ policy is all about players mental welfare. He’s still doing it now. Fifth test Anderson dropped again, while Woakes plays bowling throw downs at 60 runs per wicket. It seems like they’re just closing their eyes and picking random players. Look at the first test. Two best bowlers dropped in perfect conditions. There is no logic behind this and no reason has even been given. Silverwood still thinks he picked the correct team. He has to go and so would Root really, except there’s only him and Stokes who are going to play (unless they are rotated as well) so he will have to stay as captain.
Edit I think Stokes would be a good captain, but he has recently taken a mental health break and made pretty clear in interviews he’s not interested in it.

Get Shane Warne as the coach for this English side, if possible!!!

When a test match ends before 5th day in the subcontinent a lot of questions arise about the quality of the pitch.
In this series,
1st test finishes in day 4 2nd session.
3rd test in day 3 session 1
5th test day 3 session 3
No-one discussing about the quality of the pitch.

Can we make these guys official commentators for all big series?

If they wanted to pick the best side around i reckon there should be multiple selectors based within the set up, Head coach, Bowling Coach, Batting Coach and Team Doctor.
Coaches give their decisions based on performance either in previous games, pitch types etc.
Doctor to give medical advice solely based on facts and not asking a player "how do you feel?" (cause they could be missing half a limb and still want to play)
And then the Head Coach to go through all the information given to them and put forward the best team for the game.
Do this with 2 Coaching set ups, test and limited overs and the consistency and communication to the captain can then help them set up the team for the most success.

No matter HOW many decades when England ever travels to Australia for an ashes series, they will ALWAYS be beaten... No question!

Been waiting for this since Hobart finished! Never clicked so hard 😂