After inflicting one of England’s most chastening days of Ashes cricket in the field and pocketing a career-best score for himself, Steve Smith made light of his opponents and their lack of potency.

Speaking as he left the field on day three, with an unbeaten 229 to his name after batting through all three sessions, the Australia captain described himself as “good sore”, spoke of his love of scoring runs for his country and “thought Dawid Malan was the pick of the spinners”.

A throwaway comment, perhaps, but it cut to the heart of England’s problems this series and during the 4-0 defeat in India last winter, with a lack of pace in Joe Root’s attack and Moeen Ali struggling as the spin option despite claiming the solitary wicket to fall on Saturday.

Paul Farbrace, England’s assistant coach, who is often put up to speak after a harrowing day, described Smith’s words as “a bit of stirring” but conceded the issues thrown up are valid.

“We have got what we’ve got,” he said. “We’ve found it hard to get the ball off the straight on good pitches. I’m not being critical of our bowlers, I’m being honest. There’s nothing that’s surprised us during the course of this series and the same in India last year. Unless we get the ball to reverse then it’s quite tough for our bowlers.

Steve Smith’s double ton has Australia motoring out of England’s Ashes sight Read more

“In terms of high-quality pace, we don’t have bowlers bowling 90mph-plus in our setup and we don’t have too many waiting in the wings to come in the near future. And the one or two that do can only bowl four over spells, so they’re not exactly ideal for Test cricket.”

Craig Overton was the pick of a limp attack, with the Somerset seamer, in his second Test, diagnosed with a cracked rib at the start of play. It was initially inflicted in Adelaide on his debut when struck by a Pat Cummins bouncer before a tumble on day two here exacerbated the issue.

“He’s in a lot of pain. He is suffering but he is such a gutsy lad. He’s playing his first Test series, he’s desperate to play for England and to do well, and he stayed on the field,” said Farbrace. “To go through what he has gone through in the last couple of days and to still be out there bowling – even at the end he dived for one. Rooty suggested to him that he came off but he was having none of it – that tells you a lot about him.”

The former England captain Michael Vaughan says England’s bowlers are not suited to thrive in Australian conditions and believes the lack of variety in attack is contributing to their downfall in Australia.

“It is a disastrous day. I think today showed we have no swing, no seam, no pace or no spin,” Vaughan told BT Sport. “How are you going to get wickets? You are basically relying on an Australian batting lineup getting bored, chipping one in the air, but you can see in their eyes that they are not going to do that.

“They are desperate to get the Ashes back and you have to say today is the day, in my opinion, that the Ashes will be staying in Australia.”

He earlier tweeted: “It’s gone. It has gone. England aren’t winning this Ashes series. They’ll find it very difficult to get out of this game without it raining.”