Broken Australia struggling to avoid England whitewash

“There’s no better feeling and no better team to do it against than the Aussies,” said Alex Hales as England sought to keep their dreams of a 5-0 whitewash victory alive here today. This is Australia’s first series since they discovered sandpaper, and sympathy is in short supply.

Their captain, Tim Paine, has looked broken. He has a fat lip and specks of blood on the brim of his cap — war wounds from the second ODI in Cardiff last Saturday. His team conceded a world-record 481 at Trent Bridge two days ago.

This was always going to be a difficult tour. They had lost three straight ODI series and England, the No1 team in the world, beat them 4-1 in Australia this year.

England are missing Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, but that is nothing on Australia. David Warner and Steve Smith are banned. Mitchell Marsh is injured, as are Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Do not forget James Pattinson either. Australia arrived a shell of a team with a callow attack: five seamers with 22 caps between them.

But they have been desperately disappointing. The minimum expected was that they would have good plans, and be well drilled. Four of the squad had IPL deals worth more than AUD1.2m (£671,000), and another was worth AUD775,000 (£433,000). Instead, they have been a muddled mess and while Paine is an admirable man, he would probably not be playing if he were not captain.

The batting plans have been worse. Aaron Finch has scored five of his 10 ODI centuries against England and the rest of the team have eight tons between them, yet Finch is hidden at No5. Australia have made one of their few strengths into a weakness.

The party line is that they are “looking for combinations” that will work at the World Cup. They will surely be better by then, even if they can get only two of those star bowlers fit. Jhye Richardson has promise, and Billy Stanlake is unique. AJ Tye could translate T20 excellence into the 50-over game, but must become consistent.

In Durham today and Manchester on Sunday, Australia must restore pride at the end of a humbling tour.