Time for reflection over Christmas for hapless England team

Things have got no better for Alec Stewart's tourists after failing to prevent the Australians from winning the Ashes in the third Adelaide Test earlier this month.

Australia's convincing 205-run victory gave them a 2-0 lead and as the holders the Ashes stay here for the sixth consecutive series, but England can still draw the current series with wins in the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney over the next fortnight.

That appears improbable given Australia's dominance in the opening three Tests of the series.

Only a fierce electrical storm stopped Australia from winning the first Brisbane Test and Mark Taylor's team crushed England by seven wickets inside three days of the second Perth Test.

England endured the embarrassment of losing their final leadup game by nine wickets against the Australian XI in Hobart on Tuesday, with Greg Blewett (213) and Corey Richards (138) blazing away in an unbroken 345-run stand in 206 minutes for victory with more than 22 overs to spare.

The capitulation riled team manager and former Test batsman Graham Gooch, who did not mince his words in the aftermath of the Australian XI's astonishing come-from-behind victory.

``We were totally abject,'' Gooch said.

He said he had talked to the players about their performance, and then added: ``You can do all the talking you like.

``But the players are the ones who had to show pride and knuckle down and do the job.

``They should be very upset by their performance.''

Gooch has used similarly strong words throughout this sorry tour for England, who look to have few individual successes against the Australians.

Only Mark Ramprakash is averaging above 50 at 68.50 in his six Test series innings, while Australia has five - Justin Langer (67), Steve Waugh (60.50), Mark Waugh (56.33), Ian Healy (55.33) and Michael Slater (50).

It's a similar sorry tale in the bowling with pacemen Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming and Jason Gillespie all averaging under 20 runs per wicket, while Stuart MacGill's eight wickets in two Tests shows England's continuing anxieties with leg spin.

Such is the depth of Australian cricket, as underlined by the second-string Australian XI's rousing win, that No.6 Ricky Ponting has been dumped after just 47 runs in four innings and replaced by Darren Lehmann.

England have few such options and team management will be mulling over Christmas which bowlers to take into the Melbourne Test, having seen three potential front-line bowlers, Alex Tudor, Angus Fraser and Dominic Cork get plastered in Hobart.

The unlucky Darren Gough, who has suffered from plenty of dropped catches off his bowling but has still taken 10 wickets, and left-armer Alan Mullally, next best with seven wickets, are expected to take the new ball in Melbourne.

Gooch does not think the endless debate within the English media about the balance between the team's batsmen and bowlers matters.

``You can talk all day about seven batsmen and four bowlers or six batsmen and five bowlers,'' he said.

``It's the way we have been playing that's not good enough, not the configuration of the team.''

England will name their team later in the week.

Australia - Mark Taylor (captain), Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Darren Lehmann, Ian Healy, Craig Miller, Stuart MacGill, Jason Gillespie, Damien Fleming, Glenn McGrath (12th man to be named on morning of match).