Former captain Mike Gatting has joined a growing list of former players calling for change at the selection table as England battles to pick up the pieces of its shattered Ashes campaign.
Just two days after England unbelievably lost the Test in Adelaide to leave Australia one win away from regaining the urn, Gatting has poured more pressure on beleaguered pair Ashley Giles and Geraint Jones.
Jones made one and 10 and played a deplorable shot on the final day in Adelaide, while Giles dropped man-of-the-match Ricky Ponting when the Australian captain was on 35 in the first innings and returned match figures of 1-149.
A baffled Gatting, the last English captain to win an Ashes series in Australia, could not comprehend how spinner Monty Panesar and gloveman Chris Read were overlooked after strong performances against Pakistan during the English summer.
He even suggested that personal differences between the pair and Duncan Fletcher had led to their omission from the start of the Ashes.
"I always think it's very hard to, if people don't like persons, as a coach you've got to manage people," Gatting said.
"If you don't happen to like somebody it's not really a criteria for making it uncomfortable for them. The guy [Read] was brought back into the side in the UK, he got runs, and he kept wicket very well."
Read averaged 42 with the bat in his two Tests against Pakistan earlier this year but Gatting believed the wicketkeeper was dropped after a less-than-convincing tournament with the gloves in the ICC Champions Trophy.
"It is kind of strange. You win a series against Pakistan, I can understand Duncan saying people like Geraint and Ashley played well in the Ashes series in 2005, they did," Gatting said.
"But here changes. Someone like [Andrew] Strauss came in because Michael Vaughan was injured, he got runs and therefore he stayed in the side."
"When someone comes in and gets two five-fors in his first 10 Test matches, like a batsman getting two hundreds in his first 10 Tests, and they were against good players of spin as well."
"[We've] certainly got to try and get a guy like Monty Panesar in the side if we possibly can."
While refusing to point the finger at anyone, Gatting was disappointed England did not play more four-day matches in Australia in the lead-up to the first Test in Brisbane.
"If you can play two three-day matches, you can certainly play two four-day matches and make them matches of importance, a bit of pressure. Two three-day matches are just easy matches and no pressure on you," he said.
However, he urged selectors to take a conservative approach with Vaughan, who has been battling a string of knee injuries, cautioning them not to rush the Ashes-winning captain back for the remained of the series.
"I think Michael Vaughan has got to take his time and I think he was always initially aiming for the one-day series in order to get in some sort of order for the World Cup."
