Well: hasn’t this test at Lords turned into a …. well words escape me as to what this test match has turned into for Australian fans. To say that I, as an Australian fan, am frustrated would be an understatement. The fact is that Australia has been outplayed in absolutely every aspect of this game, perhaps with the exception of the bowling of Ryan Harris in the first innings. In addition to that fact is the fact that this is the outcome that just about everyone except for the most diehard of Australian fans expected.

It leads to this uncomfortable notion being forced down the throats of those of us who love cricket in this country: England are simply better than us at the moment. Not in some aspects of the game: all of them. From preparation, through to the quality of their domestic game and into the tactics and attitude of the actually game of cricket they are just streets ahead.

This might seem like I am, metaphorically, throwing the baby out with the bath water AND it may very well be but having already been through the Argus Review that was supposed to avoid, as its top goal, this sort of embarrassing performance now is not the time to sugar coat where Australian cricket is at.

The domestic game is not producing players that are up to test match standard at the moment, well batsmen at least, and we are now, more than ever, beholden to the dollar that comes from the Big Bash League and, more broadly, short form cricket. It is not just our state cricketers that playing more and more short form cricket: our junior and club cricketers are playing more and more of these games whilst at the same time our cricket cultural heritage of being a test cricket dynamo is being swept away because we can not produce players that are suited to the long form game.

I know this is only one game of cricket but this performance has been a growing storm that has been masked by some miraculous efforts by the captain and some individuals. We all know though that cricket is a team game and the team is only as strong as its poorest player: the Australian team has too many players who are not upto to the top flight of the game just yet.

The sticky tape that has been holding cricket in this country together has been well and truly ripped off in this test match. Some would say it already had been in India but our performance in Trent Bridge fooled us into thinking we were improving. We are not though and that frustrates me more than anything I have seen over the last 12 months.

When David Warner punched Joe Root and Mickey Arthur got the sack, I wrote that it was also time for Pat Howard and James Sutherland to go. This test match is not over nor is this series but if things do not improve starting from today’s play can anyone tell me how, certainly, Howard and, possibly, Sutherland, will survive? This is the series they have put all of their efforts into improving the Australian team to challenge for through the Argus Review and its aftermath and absent massive improvement those efforts have been rendered nugatory!

After a terrible day 2 and 3 at Lords, day 4 beckons with a massive improvement in performance needed regardless of the ultimate result of this game. Australia must improve: it is as simple as that. Then again, it would be hard to countenance a performance today that could possibly get any worse.

I, like any Australian fan, want Australia to win and Australian cricket to be dominant. More than that though I want us to compete: and I do not think we did that on day 3. I do not like writing these negative sorts of blogs but the circumstances give me nothing positive to write about. All I can hope is that day 4 is a much better day of cricket for the baggy greens and, by extension, their fans.