Michael Holding says the Australian bowlers did the real damage with the bat on day two.
Michael Holding felt Australia's bowlers did the real damage with the bat as England ended day two in Brisbane in deep trouble.
The tourists closed on 53-3 as Andrew Strauss, Alistair Cook and Paul Collingwood all came and went in 17 overs, after Ricky Ponting had declared on 602-9.
The Gabba strip offered little help for the bowlers all day, but Holding believes that England's prolonged stint in the field as Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and co stood firm, was the dominant factor in the tourists' top-order failure later on.
"I think perhaps Australia expected this to happen," he told
Sky Sports. "Most people watching the game, after seeing the opposition get 600 runs, expect wickets to fall in the latter stages.
"The team coming in to bat are a little bit depleted and are not feeling on top of the world and perhaps their legs are a little bit weary."
Although England removed Ponting and Michael Hussey and Adam Gilchrist was out for a duck, the last four Australian wickets brought 135 runs.
And while Strauss will be criticised for being caught off a pull shot, Holding says his dismissal was a perfect example of just how valuable the Australian tail-end resistance was.
"The team coming in to bat are a little bit depleted and are not feeling on top of the world and perhaps their legs are a little bit weary," he said.
"I think the shot Andrew Strauss played, is a shot he plays regularly but perhaps when he's a little fresher he gets into position earlier. If he hadn't been in the field that long, that split-second, that slight movement of the feet would have meant it was a better shot."
Holding and the
Sky Sports commentary team all agreed that the tiredness of the England players has not been helped by a lack of cricket Down Under.
Andrew Flintoff's men played just three warm-up games before the first Test, but the former West Indian pace ace insists it is not an English problem, but one affecting the modern-day game.
"I think we are seeing that on a regular basis these days, not just in this Ashes series," he said.
"We see a lot of teams go on tour and they don't play a lot of matches apart from the international games. They just shuttle them in, they play the international games, and they shuttle them back out.
"I don't know how that is helping cricket in general, not just when teams are on tour. When you are looking to develop youngsters how can they come on tour here in Australia and get developed in any way?
"They are not going to learn anything sat in the dressing room and there are no games apart from internationals games for them to go and play in. It's just about the bad structures of tours - and it's got to change."
