Australian media didn’t spare the chance to launch a full-blown attack on their Ashes opponents four months ahead of the much-coveted series, after England skipper Ben Stokes wanted to declare an early draw in the Manchester Test against India, when Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar were approaching their centuries. With a draw inevitable in Manchester and less than half an hour left on the clock, Stokes walked up to Jadeja and Sundar to offer a handshake and end the game. But the two Indian batters, whose defiance had already denied England a victory, declined the gesture. Stokes not just lashed out at the pair with verbal jibes but tossed the ball to part-timer Harry Brook in mock protest as well. India, unfazed, took just 15 minutes to complete the formalities, with Jadeja scoring his fifth Test hundred and Sundar notching up his maiden century. “Spirit… of what? How pompous England exposed Bazball’s great double standard,” Fox Cricket headlined one of their articles. “England bang on about the Laws of the Game, as written by the MCC at Lord’s. But when opposition teams follow those laws to England’s disadvantage? Time to awaken the ‘Spirit’ again,” the article read. “Spare us the whinging, England. The only thing embarrassing about Old Trafford was your tantrum,” the Brisbane Times wrote. “The contradictions are piling up,” the publication wrote. “England’s appalling display mars absolute Test classic,” the Herald Sun wrote. Code Sports launched a scathing attack, declaring England to be suffering from an “identity crisis on the eve of the Ashes tour.” India coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill backed the decision to carry on batting. “If someone from England was batting on 90, would they have walked off. Don’t these guys deserve to get a hundred,” Gambhir asked while speaking at the post-match press conference.