Perth — Two-nil down and with a harried captain insisting that his team was neither dead nor buried, there was an unnerving sense of déjà vu at the Waca as England made their final preparations on the eve of the third Ashes Test on Wednesday.Four years on from the last doomed trip to Western Australia, Joe Root led a mostly different set of players through their drills while facing the same unenviable predicament as his predecessor Alastair Cook.The glorious weather did little to ease a feeling of foreboding surrounding Root’s team, one that had also weighed on Cook’s England before their meek surrender in 2013-14.The tourists need a draw to keep the five-match series alive, but holders England have not managed one in more than 30 years at the Waca, where they have lost their past seven Tests in succession.Like his former captain Cook, still present as an out-of-form opening batsman, Root has endured a tour Down Under littered with distractions and tawdry off-field problems.He has a...
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