Parallels of '05?

So that was that.

A complete capitulation by the English in Brisbane was eerie in its parallels to the 1st test at Lords, back in 2005.

1) The Aussies totally outplayed us,

2) Kevin Pietersen destroyed the Aussie bowling attack (for a short period of time at least),

3) Everyone, including us Poms, were convinced that Australia would win the Ashes.

The only small problem the English have got currently, is that by-and-large, we were utterly spineless in Brisbane.

At Lords, England showed a true fighting spirit. With the bowlers peppering the top order with venemous short deliveries, and a few batsmen showing that they could deal with the best Australia had to offer, the nation could see that even in defeat there was much to build on.

In Brisbane, there were a multitude of problems ranging from the fact that Freddie Flintoff is a man you secretly would love to be your best man at your wedding and not captain of the country, through to the fact that Australia played like a pub team in England's second innings and we still only managed to score just over 300.

Very few of these problems presented themselves with obvious solutions.

In this instance, the toss was obviously a major player in the game, but considering the profligacy of both England's bowling and batting in the first innings, I have a nagging suspicion that the result would have been fairly similar had Ricky Ponting's little George W. Bush eyes not been the one's to light up with glee after the coin had hit the floor.

The inclusion of Anderson and Giles in the starting XI smacked of inconsistent selection policies. Both Mahmood and Panesar would have been rightly frustrated to find themselves sitting on their behinds for the duration of the Test.

Their achievements over the past summer have been far in excess of those of Anderson and Giles. As bowling threats go, we know in our hearts that they are twice as likely to strike fear into the Aussie batsmen as the buffet bowling of Anderson and the laborious geriatric spin of Giles provided.

Moving on to Adelaide, England must forget about the debacle of Brisbane and start afresh. Andrew Flintoff needs to motivate his troops and prove to them that he is more than just a comic book superman.

The whole team must truly believe that they can go toe-to-toe with the Australian veterans, because at the moment if it came to a dust up between the two, i'd go for experience over age. Wouldn't you?