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All the talk has to stop

If you're going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk, and this England cricket team isn't walking the walk.

They’re acting like they're the greatest team around, but they’re currently on course to be the first England team to lose at home to Australia since 2001.

After the first Test match, Ollie Robinson said that they felt like they won the game, Jimmy Anderson was complaining that the wicket was like kryptonite, and then you've got Zak Crawley saying they’re going to win the next one by 150 runs.

Leading into Headingley, all of this need to stop. The pressure that they're putting themselves under by speaking that way and using that language is unnecessary. It's not helping in any way, shape, or form.

I know it wasn’t the players or Brendon McCullum who came up with the term ‘Bazball’ – I don’t think they actually like that label – so I have some sympathy for them. All they want to do is try and get the best out of their players, but they’re not helping themselves. The way they’re talking actually gives credence to that term.

I said a lot of things in my career, and I put myself under a lot of pressure, but I was able to walk the walk. England are not walking the walk.

We need some mongrel

I called England’s declaration at Edgbaston one of the craziest decisions in Ashes history, and now we see how this Australia team put their foot down when they get the opportunity.

When they get their foot on the throat, they will absolutely push and push and push to destroy you. That's how they play this sport. They have that mongrel in them.

I don't see the mongrel in the England cricket team. There's so much relaxed talk. It's like, 'Hey, this is the coolest environment, we're having the best time ever.' Unfortunately, all that matters is winning.

I want to see less talking and more walking. That should be the message that is reverberating around that England team right now.

Lord’s was a missed opportunity

What we saw at Lord's was a very emotional crowd. It was an emotional crowd because people want England to win the Ashes. They’re not that bothered about what you do against anyone else. All they want is to beat Australia, and England should easily have won that Test match. 

Winning the toss in the circumstances, with the weather the way it was, they should have bowled Australia out cheaply on day one. It shouldn’t have been a difficult Test match.

They couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions to deliver a resounding defeat. So, for Australia to win, and almost very convincingly if it wasn’t for Stokes’ hundred, was damning.

Headingley will be a cauldron

Headingley is going to be electric. Absolutely electric. It's going to be like playing in Australia for us. Complete and utter carnage.

It's going to be even worse now for the Aussies, which gives England that opportunity to almost slip under the radar and get the job done.

I can see England winning this Test and getting back into the series, but they have to stop making crazy decisions, and they have to follow their leader.

Ben Stokes was brilliant at Lord's. If it wasn't for that 150, they could have been 100 all out. His innings papered over a lot of the cracks.

Stokes has said, ‘We’ve beaten teams 3-0 before and we want to do that again,’ and I believe him. He's that kind of person. I absolutely believe every single word that he says. But they need to win the next three Test matches on the cricket field and not in the media.

I'd be very happy if none of them do a press conference before they turn up on Thursday, and they just go out and play cricket.

My changes for the third Test

I'd rest Anderson for this Test match seeing as these first two matches haven't gone well, and I'd bring him back for Old Trafford, his home ground.

Ben Duckett played nicely, but Zak Crawley seems undroppable. To be honest, I don't know why.

Ollie Pope's got a shoulder injury, but he still needs to prove himself. So does Harry Brook, who now has a huge problem with the short ball.

They've got to get Mark Wood into this team. They need some pace. And hopefully Moeen Ali's finger is okay, so he will come in.