Ashes second Test day three LIVE: Stuart Broad’s grim reveal as England bowling plans under fire

Stuart Broad has revealed a conversation with three former Australian bowlers that summed up England’s performance on day two at the Gabba.

The visitors have copped plenty of criticism for their bowling, which has allowed the Aussies to take control with a 44-run first innings lead heading into Saturday’s play.

A stack of dropped catches under lights didn’t help matters either, but Broad believes the lack of consistency from the front-line quicks proved to be England’s downfall.

“It was one of those bowling displays, without wanting to be too critical, where everyone would have just had their hands on their hips asking ‘what is going on’ … over-pitching, dragging down, wide, then a clip off the hip,” he said on For The Love Of Cricket.

“It looked like bowlers were struggling for a bit of rhythm or feel their way into the game.

“Any fielding position Ben Stokes would try to put in, they would then bowl the other side and it would go for four.”

Will Jacks, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer leave the field Getty

The former England seamer, who took more than 600 wickets at Test level, then revealed a conversation he had in the broadcast area during the dismal display. 

“Glenn McGrath, Dizzy [Jason] Gillespie and Damien Fleming are just lying on a couch and I walk past them after a period where for an hour, we’d bowled really bad balls that were just leaking for four and the Aussies weren’t having to try that hard,” he said.

“I said to them in all seriousness, England have bowled more bad balls in the last half hour than you three did in your whole career. You’d expect in England, everyone would go ‘nah, that’s not the case’ but all three of them said ‘I probably agree with that’.

“Everyone was thinking that this game was going away from England at a fast rate.”