THE JIMMY ANDERSON COLUMN: England’s timid bowlers can nonetheless rescue the Ashes – that is the plan they need to use for the subsequent Test, what I wish to see extra of from Jofra Archer and the way Ben Stokes is being let down

It won’t be much consolation to Ben Stokes or anyone connected with the current England team that just lost the second Test at the Gabba, but when it comes to tours going wrong in Australia, I have been in worse situations than this.

I have been down 2-0 plenty of times in away Ashes series (four, in fact), so I know exactly how the England players will be feeling now they are two matches adrift and staring down the barrel of a series defeat as they prepare to head to Adelaide for the third Test.

I saw the photographs of the players on the beach at the resort of Noosa yesterday, and there was a familiar ring to some of the howls of outrage which greeted them. I understand why they might cause frustration among fans.

The England players will feel as if they are under siege. The Australian media is relentless in its attacks. It seems to be a facet of their coverage that they get more joy from England’s failings than the successes of their own team and they appear to be particularly gleeful about the struggles Bazball is having in Australia.

All the England players will be wanting to do is curl up in a ball in their room because of the scrutiny and the headlines and the pictures. And that is not healthy at all.

However bad the photos may look, they are doing the right thing by taking a bit of time out. They need to get out of the cricket bubble for a couple of days, get away from the pressure. It is far better that they are on the beach or the golf course than holed up in their hotel rooms.

As a player, you just want to shut yourself away until the next game. You feel as though that’s the only way for the headlines not to come out. You don’t even want to go out for a coffee because you know even that can be fraught with possibility.

When we were 3-0 down in Melbourne in 2013-14, I went for a walk with my kids when they were quite young and the photographers got us as soon as we came out of the hotel.

I just looked dejected – because there wasn’t much to smile about. I ended up feeling like I just wanted to hide away again.

That tour was the worst one I’ve been involved with. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

The team was edging towards decline, we had just come out of the Kevin Pietersen-Andrew Strauss stuff where KP had been texting South African players about his captain, Jonathan Trott was struggling with his mental health and flew home early and Graeme Swann retired during the tour.

It just felt as if we were fighting a losing battle. Australia were strong but even though we were trying our best, there was a kind of inevitability about that trip where I knew we were just going to get dealt with. 

Everything crowded in on us. Mitchell Johnson was on fire and everything went downhill very quickly.

We are not at that point yet on this tour but we are getting close. I was surprised by how poor our bowling performance was in Brisbane in the Australian first innings. It felt like all four seamers didn’t quite get it right for the whole day.

They all bowled a little bit too short and too wide. They bowled to Australian strengths. They conceded way too many runs behind square and that tells me they bowled way too short and not accurately enough. They are better bowlers than that. There were cracks in that wicket to aim for and we missed them.

There are wider issues with our attack, too. There is not that communication that you need in a bowling group to do well. I don’t see the bowlers going up to Stokes with ideas of what they want to do and plans to get wickets. It feels as if Stokes is having to do everything. What should be happening is a collective effort as a bowling group.

You have got to be talking to each other all the time. How are we trying to get wickets? What is working on this pitch? Exchanging ideas. Encouraging each other all the time. It doesn’t feel like that’s there. It looks as if Stokes is on his own.

I don’t see many chats between Stokes and Harry Brook, the vice-captain. In a good team, we need everyone to be having good ideas. But our bowlers are not characters like that. 

I am not digging them out but Gus Atkinson is quite a quiet guy, Brydon Carse is the same and so is Jofra Archer.

I think it was clear in Brisbane that our first-innings total was slightly under par. When Stuart Broad and I were bowling, if that was the situation, we would gee each other up to bowl really well at the start of the Aussie innings, put them under pressure early and just have a massive focus on that first six to 10 overs to set the tone and bring energy.

But at the Gabba, England’s bowlers started so poorly. It was a timid beginning, lots of deliveries down the leg side and the pace of the bowling down. When that happens, the fielding group goes flat quite quickly.

This England team is missing a leader in the attack. We don’t have a captain of the bowlers any more, someone checking in on the group, bouncing ideas around, making sure everyone is working together and coherently, backing each other up. 

Stokesy can’t do everything, but his bowlers in this squad aren’t the kind of personalities who can help him out.

I did smile at the exchange between Steve Smith and Jofra right near the end of the game when Australia were closing in on victory. 

‘You bowl fast when there’s nothing going on, champion,’ Smith said and I could see why a lot of people agreed with him.

Jofra bowled his fastest spell in Test cricket when Australia only needed 65 to win. The game had already gone when he was hitting 95mph.  

England need that attitude and that fire and that pace from ball one of the first innings. That was the frustration for me.

If Jofra had bowled like that in the first innings, then he brings everyone else with him. He brings the fielding group with him. He brings more energy to everyone. You beat the bat, you rush a batter with pace and then the fielding group is going to lift and be noisier and the batter will feel under more pressure because it’s coming from all angles. That never happened.

I loved the fact that Jofra was going hard at Smith, but don’t do it when they need 20 to win. Do it when we need to get a foothold in the game. Do it when we’ve got an under-par score in the first innings. Get right in their face and bowl as fast as you can.

Don’t think, ‘I might have a long day in the field here so I better bowl within myself to start off with.’ 

If he can bowl at 95mph there, he can do it from day one. So when Smith said that, I thought he was probably saying what everyone else in England was thinking. Why only now? It’s way too late.

When Ben spoke afterwards about Australia not being a place for weak men, what I saw from him was someone who was extremely frustrated and borderline angry, someone trying hard not to say something he shouldn’t.

There is still hope left. Not as much as the start of the series but we still need to win three Test matches.

In that context, the loss of Mark Wood, who ruled himself out of the rest of the tour with a recurrence of his knee injury on Tuesday, was a big blow because he is someone who can crack open a game. 

He can bowl frighteningly quick spells and he left his mark on Australia’s batsmen in Perth, as Cameron Green (and the grille on his helmet) found out. 

His absence does not change the fact that England have to leave everything on the field in Adelaide. Leave nothing in the tank. 

You have to play the Adelaide Test match as if it is the deciding Test match in the Ashes. You have got to play it as if it is 0-0 and that this is the only Test that matters.

Matt Prior, the former England wicketkeeper, pointed out that, having listened to Stokes speak, if you don’t want to follow him into battle, then you’re playing the wrong game.

If anyone can get the best out of this team and turn things around, it is Stokes.