Former Australian captain Rickey Ponting says England are in danger of being completely whitewashed this summer, after thus far failing to impress during the first two Tests.
Ponting, who predicted a 4-0 series win to Australia prior to the Ashes, told cricket.com.au the tourists have not shown anything to suggest they can trouble the hosts or get back into the series.
"England haven't done anything to impress me yet," Ponting said.
"Everyone talked about how even the first Test was but it actually wasn't.
"Australia win by 10 wickets having lost the toss and the wicket was nowhere near like a Brisbane pitch.
"They got an England pitch for the first three days and they survived and held on because of the conditions.
"But as soon as they hardened up and got quicker England were found wanting and found wanting badly.
"The same thing here. They won the toss, they got the conditions that they wanted; a grassy pitch, overhead conditions.
"(Stuart) Broad and (James) Anderson, as good as they've been, they lacked that impact on the game.
"They continue to bowl well but they just haven't got the impact to knock over the best players right now and the guys behind them – (Chris) Woakes, (Jake) Ball up there in Brisbane, (Craig) Overton here – have been steady but not good enough."
Ponting said one of England's main problems was relying on a few star players to win them games of cricket.
"They rely on too few and the few they rely on are past their best," he said.
"Alastair Cook has made 11,000 Test runs and (played) 140 games but having been there and done it, it's really hard to improve as a player.
"If you look at Cook's last 6-12 months he got 240 in a Test against the West Indies over there and that made his whole summer look a whole a lot better than it was.
"I think he's just hanging on and the other two (Broad Anderson) are the same.
"They're going to need to unearth something pretty special."
England will resume on day three of the second Test in Adelaide on 1-29, 413 runs behind Australia's first innings total of 8-442 declared.
