'ENGLAND ARE NOT HOPELESS'

But defiant captain needs miracle now

- FROM RORY DOLLARD in Brisbane

ENGLAND have eight days to pick themselves up off the floor before hostilities resume.

And they must now be almost perfect if they are to bring the urn back home with them in the new year.

Only one team in history, Donald Bradman’s Australian class of 1936-37, has overturned a 2-0 deficit to win a five-match Ashes series.

England, meanwhile, have not won a single Test Down Under since 2010-11, losing 15 and drawing two.

Claiming a hat-trick of wins at Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney is highly unlikely, but not yet impossible.

Skipper Ben Stokes said: “We still have the opportunity to do what we came to do.