What the hell happened??

Seriously... what?

Whilst Taylor and co. did indeed bowl their socks off, how does an entire team just not turn up with the bat.

Did their periods all suddenly start at the same time?

Clearly there is the issue of having no coach, something that Strauss approved of. And in a similar vein there was the comments from Strauss about how he wanted to make all the players take more personal responsibility for their own preparation. What happened to that?

I can't put forward much of a theory myself, but it does seem similar to what I heard happening to Totnes Hot Tubs in the association football. They were sucking with one manager, so they got someone else to shout at their overpaid pansies and somehow it worked...

Ultimately though one has to take the longview, it's just one match, just one and a half fscking sessions... life goes on, and there are still 3 tests. Having said that though, I'm looking forward to my Ashes tickets a little less than I was this morning.

One thing that did change during that humiliating time was that whilst when Bell went for 4 he looked totally finally doomed in favour of Shah, by the end of the match, his figures were technically above average, so no longer expect Shah next time!