England can't paper over cracks

Broad was on crutches after play finished on day three, having been struck a fearful blow on the right foot while batting when he failed to jam down on a searing Mitchell Johnson yorker that ended his innings as well as his hopes of bowling in Australia’s second innings.

The 27-year-old attempted to play through the pain and underwent a cursory fitness test in the WACA nets as his team-mates returned to the field after lunch on day three of the third Commonwealth Bank Ashes Test in Perth.

But he was advised by medical staff to attend hospital for x-rays instead, and while they indicated something might have been broken by the blow, England is awaiting examination of subsequent MRI scans in the UK overnight before making a ruling on Broad’s immediate future.

"I was obviously desperate to get out there and bowl so I had to try it in the nets to see how it went,” Broad, clad in a protective brace on his damaged foot, said after a day’s play in which his team hit their lowest ebb of a forgettable campaign and all but surrendered the Ashes.

“Normally with a bruise when you get a bit of blood going through it the pain decreases (but) it actually increased quite a bit in the nets.

"It's a bit sore to weight-bear at the minute but I'll certainly bat if the team requires it.

"Obviously I wanted to go out and have a spell but the doc said I had to go for an x-ray.

"I'm desperate to play a part in the rest of this Ashes series. Even if there's a small crack there, if my symptoms aren't painful I see no reason why I can't continue to play.

"I've got 10 days until Boxing Day (Test match) ... and I know a lot of ice and elevation helps.

"As a fast bowler injuries are part and parcel of it (but) it’s a bit more frustrating when you get hit batting.”

While the results of Broad’s scans might have a major bearing on his team’s fortunes on the final two days in Perth and beyond, it is cracks of another sort that will create more immediate concerns.

The Perth pitch is increasingly showing the gaping scars caused by three days of intense heat, and some of the widening cracks running lengthwise along its surface have already caused the ball to deviate alarmingly.

Australia opener Chris Rogers, who spent much of his first-class career with the WACA as his home ground, sounded an ominous note when asked about the conditions after the third day’s play.

"All in all it’s a good surface but these cracks are going to come more into play,” Rogers said. “It’s flat, which means we have to put ourselves in a good position, but equally so, if these cracks keep widening then it’s going to be very hard to bat on and it will be scary.

"I think they (England's players) know, particularly with our pace, that that (the cracks) gets a bit worrisome.

"It's hard to remember cracks like this. I think maybe when I started (playing for WA) there were a couple of pitches that were like this and got a bit nasty, so hopefully that continues to happen.

"(However) to be fair, I reckon it’s the best WACA pitch I've played on in a long time."

What is not fair is the current state of the contest between the two teams.

While Rogers rated today as Australia’s best so far in a series they have comprehensively dominated since the second day, Broad was left to acknowledge it might correspondingly have been England’s worst.

"It's a bad one, there’s no hiding away from that,” he said. "We came in here this morning knowing we had to get close to Australia, and believing we could, but losing three wickets before the new ball was obviously very disappointing.

"We wanted to build towards that new ball, get through that new ball with an 'in' batsman and then build a score.

"That started the day off pretty badly, and then Australia obviously didn't have a lot of pressure on them when they came out to bat.

"They played very nicely, in the attacking way they've played all summer."

And while Broad refused to concede the Ashes were lost, a number of former England Test heroes were less equivocal.

Ex-skipper Sir Ian Botham lamented: "I'm finding this hard to comprehend. It's almost embarrassing. England have been bullied."

Another former skipper, Andrew Strauss, was equally downbeat, claiming: "England are being obliterated by Australia, it is becoming a humiliation".

And serial England-baiter and ex-Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath didn’t miss the opportunity to twist the knife when he observed: "If Australia keep playing the way they are and England keep playing the way they are, it will be five-nil".