Two days into The Ashes first test and England have collapsed beyond much hope. I actually woke up at 04:40 this morning and tuned in for 15 minutes. A silly thing to do. England had just lost a string of wickets for not many runs at all, then that fella from the local rag – who’d been chipping in with his anti Broad tirade since last week, his Broad Fraud headline, his Broad Ban campaign – was on air as the tea time guest. Smug doesn’t come into it. Chipper.

I knew we’d gotten off to too good a start. It’s a classic start for England – a reasonable first day then it’s as if someone’s magically removed all the calcium from the body of England cricket, a massive collapse within the space of a few minutes. Having said that, we’ve not been too shabby the past few years against the baggy greens,  but last night (/yesterday) saw a collapse that hasn’t seen the likes since Melbourn 1990. I believe the natives will be loving that, down in convict colony. The good thing about a full test though, is that it’s a long game, and there’s plenty more batting to come. Hopefully, some of it will be from Cook, Carberry and co.

The bowling could prove pivotal later on in the test. Panesar is surprisingly, back in the squad. He’s recently caught a bit of press attention for all the wrong reasons. Some say, he can’t handle his drink that lad. He can (when he’s on form) handle the ball though with devastating effect and wit. So I guess we’ll just have to see. A painful, yet still fascinating test.