Former England captains urge more help for Root

England's batters must step up and come to the aid of skipper Joe Root who has constantly been fighting a lone battle to rescue the side after numerous batting collapses in recent years, former captains believe.

England surrendered the first Vodafone Ashes Test at the Gabba on Saturday following a spectacular batting collapse where the tourists lost eight wickets in the first session, allowing Australia to go 1-0 up with an emphatic nine-wicket victory.

"For a long time now, England have found themselves 3-20, 3-30, 4-40. They were 4-29 in the first innings of this Test and went on to be bowled out for 147," Nasser Hussain wrote in his Sky Sports column.

"Root has been their star player for a number of years and is the only one this year who averages over 40 in Test cricket.

"Root and (Dawid) Malan are the only ones averaging over 30, Root and Rory Burns are the only ones with Test hundreds.

"I'm afraid that's just not good enough, that is not going to win you that many Test matches. It can't just be Root."

Root had surpassed Michael Vaughan for the most Test runs in a calendar year for England on Friday and even the former captain was critical of the way the side had collapsed.

"Problem for England is when they have a bad session, they have Test match-losing sessions with the bat. It's been happening for too long against the better teams," Vaughan wrote on Twitter.

Michael Atherton, who led England in 54 Tests, added that although Root's decision to bat first at the "Gabbatoir" was a mistake, the manner of his team's dismissals was also a concern.

"Batting badly was a more costly mistake. Time and again, England's batting line-up underwhelms and Root himself can only carry so much weight," Atherton wrote in The Times.

"The first innings total was a hundred runs below par; with a competitive total it was possible to see a route to success batting first.

"Poor batting and missed chances resulted in a deficit too challenging to overcome."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena