Ashes 2013-14: Now is not the time for any more changes for England If we look at the Melbourne Test in its proper context, we can see that it was the height of optimism to expect an England team with four inexperienced players in the top seven to score enough runs to defeat Australia - especially when the four tailenders were guaranteed to be blasted out by Johnson if they did not first slog at Nathan Lyon. Test batting line-ups with four rookies in the top seven - and Michael Carberry is a rookie, yet to learn the tempo of Test match batting, along with Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow - simply do not score the big first-innings totals that win matches: the rookies have not learned how to eliminate the errors. South Africa are the top Test side because they do not have any rookie batsmen, although they will need one to replace the irreplaceable Jacques Kallis. And not all of England's three senior batsmen fulfilled their role. Cook, given the multitudinous burdens of captaincy, did; and the new, amazingly responsible father-figure who is Kevin Pietersen. But there must be 100,000 club cricketers in England and Wales, or simply Wales, who would have made a better fist of Lyon's offspin than Ian Bell did in his second innings of one ball. England's new batting line-up has to be allowed time to bed down. In the short term Matt Prior has to return next summer so that senior batsmen outnumber the juniors, and remain there until Jonny Bairstow has improved his batting and his keeping work to his left-hand side, or Jos Buttler has matured in both facets. England supporters at home who have watched for a few hours before going to bed, or seen the highlights, have to make allowance for the unrelenting accuracy of Australia's attack. When Ryan Harris hobbled in and gave Cook a couple of balls on his legs in England's second innings at Melbourne, it was the first width that Cook had been given in this series, having been feasted last time. Aside from when Steve Smith has bowled one of his 11 overs, it was the nearest to a bad Australian over this winter. The most economical of England's bowlers, James Anderson, has conceded 3.2 runs per over; the least economical of Australia's bowlers, Lyon, has conceded 2.8 an over. It is pointless comparing any Australian attack that contained Shane Warne with any that has not had Warne, but this current bowling line-up should be rated as good - in accuracy and, thanks to Johnson, penetration - as any Warne-less attack they have had since the Second World War. Immortal ignominy awaits Cook's team if they lose in Sydney. England have lost 5-0 in Australia only in 1920-1, when the Tests were timeless and England's bowlers were either literally or metaphorically shot during the First World War, and 2006-7. They might deserve such a fate for the way they batted at Brisbane, when their first innings lasted 52.4 miserable overs, and at Adelaide when their first innings of 172 was an abject surrender - but not for the way their inexperience cost them the fourth Test. It may have been their most disappointing performance this winter, but it was far from being their worst.