England face WACA test

Perth, December 13

Two-nil down and with a harried captain insisting his team was neither dead nor buried, there was an unnerving sense of deja vu at the WACA as England made their final preparations on the eve of the third Ashes Test on Wednesday.

Four years on from the last doomed trip to Western Australia, Joe Root led a mostly different set of players through their drills under a big Perth sky while facing the same unenviable predicament as his predecessor Alastair Cook.

The glorious weather did little to ease a feeling of foreboding surrounding Root’s team, one that also weighed on Cook’s England before their meek surrender in 2013-14.

The tourists need a draw to keep the five-match series alive before they head to Melbourne, but holders England have not managed one in over 30 years at the WACA, where they have lost their past seven Tests in succession.

Like his former captain Cook, still present as an out-of-form opening batsman, Root has endured a tour Down Under littered with distractions and tawdry off-field problems.

He has also echoed Cook’s words from the last tour, insisting his side can defy 80 years of history and join Don Bradman’s Australia as the only team to come back from 0-2 down to win an Ashes series. — Reuters