The Ashes: Twitterati react to woeful batting stat of England's Test batsmen in 2021

It's fair to say that the English cricket team will not look back at the year 2021 fondly, particularly in Test cricket, England have been woeful at times. 

Team India dominated England in Tests at home and away with one game still remaining to be played, while Australia have also manhandled the English in the ongoing Ashes series, Down Under. 

While the team must share the collective blame, England's batting in test cricket has underwhelmed spectacularly this year. Just how much bad they've been you ask? A recent statistic shared by a journalist on Twitter reveals that the English have been bowled out for under 200, a mammoth 12 times in 2021. 

In the original tweet, the journalist made a typo as he wrote England were bowled out 13 times, and later corrected it to 12, but actually, as fate would have it, England once again folded for 185 runs on Sunday in the third Test at the MCG, thereby making it the 13th time they failed to score more than 200. 

Apologises - actually only the 12th time. All is well

— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) December 26, 2021

It's almost criminal for a team of England's level to perform so bad with the willow. Reacting to the journalist's tweet, former Australian cricket Damien Martyn wrote, "Clearly something is wrong. From a batting point of view just look at the 2021 batting averages for England."

Clearly something is wrong. From a batting point of view just look at the 2021 batting averages for England. #ashes https://t.co/dn5bAp6rsf

— Damien Martyn (@damienmartyn) December 26, 2021

Twitterati did not spare any blushes and bashed England's underwhelming performances so far this term. 

England has not been able to find an replacement for Alistair Cook which exposes their middle order

— Rajesh mudras (@MudrasRajesh) December 26, 2021

Arguably the worst batting performance by Eng in tests in the 21st century.

— movieman (@movieman777) December 26, 2021

And this is in-spite of an absolutely stellar year for Root. Scarcely believable how worse it could have been had Root not been in a demi-god mode

— naabh4 (@naabh4) December 26, 2021

This is something you can't digest as a cricket fan.

— Ibrahim Badees (@IbrahimBadees) December 26, 2021

& Root Scored 1600+ runs this year 

— Dee (@deenadylan) December 26, 2021

Among many lows, one shining knight in armour was skipper Joe Root, who has continued his record-breaking spree. He scored a total of 1,680 runs this year, which is the third-highest tally by a player in a calendar year after Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf (1,788 runs in 2006) and former West Indies skipper Sir Vivian Richards (1,710 runs in 1976). 

The fact that Root has scored runs aplenty at his will, is a further indictment on his fellow English batsmen.