Steve Harmison admitted England were a ‘shambles’ as they suffered an embarrassing defeat to India at Lord’s and fears for what will happen during The Ashes.
Joe Root’s side capitulated on the fifth day of the second Test as they lost by 151 runs, one of their worst defeats for some time.
India were leading by just 182 with only two wickets left as England held the upper hand, before unlikely career-best knocks from tailenders Mohammed Shami (56no) and Jasprit Bumrah (34no) unexpectedly left the visitors in control.
The host’s frailties with the bat were woefully exposed once again as they were bowled out for 120.
Former England fast bower Harmison joined talkSPORT Breakfast on Tuesday and reacted to the result.
He said: “It was a fantastic Test match. I bet Joe Root wished he could sleepwalked back into the Lord’s dressing room on Monday morning and do things all over again.
“England were a shambles. I find it hard to rant because they were that bad.
“When Bumrah walked into bat it was like a bully in the schoolyard being stood up to by the smaller kid.
“They didn’t go hard at Bumrah, but did have a go at him verbally and tried to bowl bouncers at him.
“All of a sudden, India stood up to England, and England just capitulated.
“It was frightening to watch. The plans went out the window, they were rudderless and had nobody to say ‘hold on here, let’s stop doing what we are doing’.
“It went on and on and on.”
Captain Root scored 180 in the first innings as he continues to be the only England batsman to be in form in 2021 and Harmison believes you can’t criticise him too much.
He said: “They (India) batted brilliantly, but let’s not sugarcoat the fact of what is going on in England cricket and that is the top order.
“England look all at sea at this moment in time. You can criticise Joe for his captaincy but I find it hard to criticise that young man because what he’s doing for the England cricket team… he’s carrying them on his back.
“It’s embarrassing. If it doesn’t stop, I just fear where it could be by the end of the Ashes in six month’s time.”
On how England can improve, Harmison added: “Where do you start. You can go off the structure and all this stuff you can chuck the blame at.
“Sometimes, you just have to look at yourself in the mirror and I thought England were quite soft yesterday and that worried me more than some of the batsmen’s dismissals.
“They let India walk all over them. To change that it is quite difficult.”