5 key takeaways for England after their capitulation in the Ashes
As Australia regained the iconic urn with a comprehensive victory by an innings and 41 runs at the WACA, it also marked the 8th successive Ashes defeat for the English side at the famous ground hosting its last Test match.
Now that Australia have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead over England, a whitewash looks quite possible. A clean sweep would open up the wounds from the 2013 tour, that ended the careers of the likes of Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, and Kevin Pietersen.
Here, we look at the factors that have contributed to England's humiliating loss and what might be the fallout of the Ashes Down Under.
#5 The 'Root' Cause
There have been a lot of question marks over Joe Root's captaincy during the ongoing series. His decision to bowl first in the 2nd Ashes Test at Adelaide was widely criticized. But all these problems have been compounded by his failures with the bat. This has been a recurring theme for the England captain.
However, there is no escaping from the comparison with Steven Smith and Virat Kohli. Joe Root scores a half-century once every 2.4 innings and a century once every 8.6 innings. Although Root has the best innings-per-fifty ratio, his counterparts boast of a better conversion rate when it comes to converting fifties into hundreds.
Steven Smith scores a century once every five innings while Virat Kohli takes approximately 5.5 innings to score a 100.
This was clearly evident in Adelaide Test, where after choosing to bowl (although a questionable decision), his side was on the brink of a historic victory as Joe Root was dismissed at the score 67, which then a caused lower-order batting collapse and an opportunity was lost to even out the series.