England suffered a shocking eight-wicket defeat in the first Ashes Test against Australia at Perth Stadium on Saturday (November 22).

After gaining a handy first-innings lead of 40 runs, the Three Lions were comfortably placed at 65/1 in their second essay before Scott Boland triggered a collapse of four wickets in as many overs. He got rid of Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook in the space of 11 balls, and then Mitchell Starc dismissed Joe Root two deliveries later. Starc also removed Stokes to complete a 10-wicket match haul.

Despite a vital 50-run stand between debutant Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse, the visitors were eventually bowled out for 164.

Chasing 205 to win, the hosts stormed to the target in just 28.2 overs as Travis Head smashed a breathtaking 123 off 83 balls. Marnus Labuschagne finished unbeaten on 51, with Steve Smith on two, as Australia won the contest inside two days to secure 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

After the game, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin delivered a scathing assessment of England’s approach, asking “how reckless can you be as a batting group?”

“But how reckless will reckless suffice? I am actually thinking, where will the bandwidth of the word ‘reckless’ remain? If you keep putting everything into that bandwidth, how reckless can even reckless get? Because I am saying that, you know, there are many things. I don’t want to take names of players. Even in the Indian team, there will be many next-generation players who, I mean, the fielders are back on the boundary, yet they take the chance, they hit lofted shots,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“As a batting group, how reckless can you be? Because on the first day, you were knocked out for 172, you lost five wickets in the space of 12 or 15 or maybe 20 runs. After that your bowling attack wrestled the initiative back, gave you a 40-run lead. And your first job as a batting unit is to give your bowlers enough rest. And Rahul (Dravid) bhai always says, give your bowlers overnight rest and see how your bowlers respond. Today they came and cleaned up the last wicket. The England bowlers, I am sure, would have wanted to put their feet up, and in no time they are back on the park looking to defend 200, which is paltry,” he added.

Australia hammered England in the Ashes opener despite missing Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood due to injuries.

“In my view, England, minus Pat Cummins minus Hazlewood have been hammered, and truly hammered, after they put on a show and thinking Bazball has come to town. They have been hammered for reckless cricket. So I know Michael Vaughan was saying on commentary that this team knows how to come back. I hope they do, because this will become a very, very, very long tour otherwise,” Ashwin remarked.

England will look to regroup and reassess their plans before they face Australia in second Ashes Test, starting on December 4 in Brisbane.