The UK press have been brutal in summing up a horror day two of the second Test for England, after they dropped five catches to allow Australia to claim the upper hand.

Australia lead the series 1-0 and are in control with a 44 run lead on the first innings and four wickets still in hand.

Victory in Brisbane would see England need to win the remaining three Test to reclaim the Ashes urn.

Reacting to another rollercoaster day, the British media as well as past players and pundit lamented England’s inability to put together a complete performance with more than one declaring it one of the worst effort with the ball of under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

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Former England captain Nasser Hussain said England committed the cardinal sin at the Gabba.

“There is nothing in between with this England side, they are either really poor or they show a bit of character and try and fight back towards the end of the day,” Hussain said on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast

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All 5 England missed catches | 00:27

“It is just a given that you rock up to Australia and the Gabba and you don’t get carried away with the bounce. You do not bowl short and wide to anyone, anywhere in the world.

“I’ve never seen so many cuts and ramps in the first 15 overs of a new spell.”

Former England opener Mike Atherton was similarly perplexed by England’s tactics with the ball and atrocious fielding.

“It was an extraordinary day,” Atherton added to Hussain’s comments.

“And it is so hard to bring some clarity to it because they were awful in the morning.

Jamie Smith had a tough day with the gloves.Source: Getty Images

“Australia were going at six an over with England bowling short and wide and getting clattered to all parts.

“In the 57th over you thought England were out of the game. Australia had the game much like England had the game yesterday.

“And then Brydon Carse, who had been hammered all around the ground suddenly picks up those two wickets and a dropped catch in the 57th over and then you thought England are right back in this.

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“And then they drop four catches afterwards and Australia have got themselves ahead of the game. Australia are not as far ahead of the game as they should have been and England are still in the game. But those dropped catches hurt England tonight.”

One of the biggest culprits in the field was England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith who endured a horror day with the gloves Australia’s supporters mercilessly mocking him.

Former England spinner Phil Tufnell, no stranger to the taunts of an Aussie crowd, admitted said the atmosphere could take a toll on Smith.

“It chips away you it really does,” Tufnell said on BBC’s Test Match special.

“And I’m afraid he just looked a little bit lead footed and a little bit startled.

“And the other one the Joe Root drop, well I think that might have been his (Smith’s) when he should have gone to his left-hand side. Joe Root was sort of wider at first slip.

“It effects your legs and they become a bit like lead and you become a bit indecisive.”

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Ben Stokes couldn’t believe what he was seeing from his fielders.Source: AP

The Telegraph UK’ Nick Hoult, meanwhile. labelled it the worst bowling since Brendan McCullum took over as coach.

He also questioned England’s decision to not participate in a pink ball warm-up match. A move that appeared to backfire after their effort in the field.

“Batsmen bobbed and weaved under a barrage of bouncers on a blood-and-thunder day of Ashes cricket at a feral Gabba but it was Australia on top by the end thanks to one of the worst bowling performances of the Bazball era,” Hoult wrote.

“Australia cruised at 5.17 an over, helped by five dropped catches and bowling that was at times atrocious and unable to exert pressure for long enough.”

“England dropped four catches under the lights, perhaps the result of failing to play a proper pink-ball match as warm-up. Preparation in the nets is one thing, but a game situation cannot be replicated quite so easily, and England’s record in day-night cricket when fielding under the lights has always been dodgy.”

Hoult said there was a clear pattern emerging from the early days of the series.

“This series is only four days old but a grim pattern has emerged: England just do not play well enough for long enough with bat, ball or in the field to threaten a weakened Australia side.

“Every Australian batsman reached double figures and five of the six partnerships put on at least 37 – the first four all cruising past 50 stands – a sharp contrast to the four ducks in England’s innings.

“It was achieved by treating England’s main threat with respect. Jofra Archer took one for 74 from 20 overs and deserved better, Jamie Smith dropping a howler with the new ball that could have changed the day.

“Australia just waited for the others to serve up dross.

Root reflects on Poms’ missed catches | 11:29

The Telegraph’s cricket correspondent from the Gabba Will Macpherson summed up the difference between the two sides in the field, which has Australia closing in on a 2-0 lead.

He pointed the battle between rival keepers, Alex Carey and Smith as a pivotal match-up, one that the Australian is comfortably winning.

“Right now, Carey is dominating the battle, especially after his second-evening cameo that benefited from England’s poor catchingm: Macpherson wote.

“Smith could be an immense Test batsman, whether he has the gloves or not, but he is in a lean run stretching back to the Lord’s Test against India, and has 75 runs in seven innings, including a first-day duck, bowled by a beautiful nip-backer from Scott Boland.

“Smith went into that Lord’s Test with an average of 58.6, but has tailed off, due to fatigue against India and a desire to take on the short ball in Australia. Now, he has suffered a loss of concentration in the field, and the mock jeering of the unforgiving Gabba crowd every time he caught the ball for the rest of the day. He is a very level character, but this will test him.

The drop of Head cost 30 runs. The greater cost was less tangible. It set the tone for a day of sloppy fielding.”

Telegraph Chief Sports Writer Oliver Brown labelled Jofra Archer’s one-sided battle with Steve Smith a nightmare.

“Jofra Archer looked like a man trapped in his own private nightmare, face-to-face with his implacable nemesis once more,” Brown wrote.

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“It tormented him that Steve Smith, whom he peppered with such vicious bouncers at Lord’s in 2019 that even Australia’s most resilient batsman had to miss the next match, was somebody he had never dismissed in a Test.

That battled resumed at the Gabba. Archer with a pink ball in hand, under lights, and ready to inflict more damage on the Australian.

“Except Smith, usually a diagram of agitation, did not seem flustered in the least,” Brown wrote.

“The worst wound of all, though, was the wonderfully deliberate six with which Smith punished a short ball, bending back and swatting it over the rope with a minimum of fuss.

“So much for any scar tissue from his previous punishment. The stand-in captain was in the mood, like his team-mates, to respond to the England pace attack with a decisiveness bordering on disdain.”