Former England captain Michael Vaughan has said that England are trapped in a 'big circle of excuses' after James Anderson suggested that the lack of support from pitches played a big role in the side's failure.
Australia retained the Ashes for the first time on English soil in 18 years after they registered a comprehensive victory over the hosts in the fourth Test in Manchester. Tim Paine's side also leads the five-match series 2-1, with the final Test beginning later today at The Oval.
In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan stressed that there is a readied series of excuses after every England failure, and called for it to stop.
"We always go through a cycle in English cricket when we win or lose. When we lose at home it’s because the pitches have been too flat and have not assisted our bowlers. When we win a series at home it is because we are really good and have played brilliant cricket," wrote Vaughan.
"When we lose a series away it is because the pitches at home offer too much assistance to bowlers and we cannot produce batsmen who can bat for long periods of time. It is just one big circle of excuses.
"When our greatest ever bowler, James Anderson, said this week he was disappointed the pitches have not helped us more in this Ashes series it showed the cycle had started up again.
"If we want to produce cricketers who can play the relentless style of cricket then we cannot be complaining about the pitches and the ball not swinging enough," Vaughan wrote.
Anderson had earlier said that the English team might be assisted better if the pitches are biased towards the team's strength, stressing that other teams like Australia, India and Sri Lanka do the same.
"When you go to Australia, go to India, go to Sri Lanka - they prepare pitches that suit them. I feel like we could just be a little bit more biased towards our own team," Anderson had said.
England will play for pride and look to level the series when they take on the Aussies in the final Ashes Test on September 12.
