Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian captain, has shown distress over the careless performance of the English Cricket Team in the Ashes 2025-26. He said that the team was not at all concerned about their performance at the prestigious event and acted carelessly. The Aussies won against England as they had already conceded the series.

The neutral fans were not perplexed by the team's struggle led by Ben Stokes as it is already tough to beat Australia in Australia. He was distressed by the way the Three Lions approached big moments. 

In his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar wrote:

“England’s performances in most sports are a huge let-down when set against the write-ups their teams receive from people who have hardly, if ever, played any sport at the highest level. The disappointment, therefore, is far greater when the teams show that they are more paper tigers than real ones.” 

Gavaskar also spoke about 'Bazball' and the brand of the English team that plays under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes. Their new style was exciting, but the opposition teams countered it well.

Sunil Gavaskar also said: 

“McCullum brought the same freshness to England’s cricket, and that took the rest of the cricketing world by surprise. Gone was the dreary, dull cricket they played, and suddenly, the opposition did not know how to counter it. However, as with so-called mystery bowlers, the surprise wore off. Once teams realised that England had little answer whenever the ball deviated, provided the pitches were not flat, the problems became evident.” 

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He also argued that the English players, barring Joe Root, batted without adjusting to the match situation and he did not value their wickets enough.

Besides, Gavaskar concluded by saying:

"With their media making excuses for them about pitches when they were overseas, the batters refused to change their approach and bat according to the situation. With the management also ignoring some of the unforgivable and irresponsible shots played by the batters, the fear of being left out simply is not there. Valuing playing for your country and putting a minimum price of a century on your wicket is something only the great Joe Root does,”

England lost in a humiliating way in Ashes 2025-26 by 4-1 against Australia. However, their performance has improved in the last two matches, but the series was already lost.