England reach tour curtain call in Sydney

England's miserable tour of Australia finally comes to an end after the third Twenty20 international in Sydney on Sunday. The tourists' return home could not come soon enough after losing the Ashes series 5-0, the one-day international campaign 4-1 and already being 2-0 down in the T20s. Friday's eight-wicket loss in Melbourne was followed by England Test coach Andy Flower stepping down. That defeat, which came after England managed just 130-9 batting first, saw them slip to eighth in the world rankings. England could return to sixth – and relegate Australia to eighth – if they improve dramatically and claim the final match on their tour. But that would require a huge turnaround with the hosts having dominated the opening two games of the 20-over series. Cameron White (133 runs) has been the dominant batsman, dismissed just once in the series so far. Only Ravi Bopara's dashing unbeaten 65 in the first match has resembled any sort of form for struggling England. The leading wicket-takers' list is also dominated by Australia, with no England bowler managing to take multiple scalps. Josh Hazlewood took 4-30 in the second match and, should he be selected, will go into the final clash on a hat-trick of sorts having taken consecutive wickets to finish his spell on Friday. England need to restore some pride in the shortest format, but whether they can achieve the improvement required remains to be seen. Ben Stokes, a shining light during the Test series, has surprisingly been left out in the T20s and has the ability to prove some individual inspiration. Former England captain Nasser Hussain labelled England's performance in Melbourne 'dreadful'. "This tour has been an absolute disaster from start to finish," Hussain said on Sky Sports. "Anyone can lose two Twenty20 games but to lose like that was ridiculous. On paper England have a pretty good Twenty20 side; most people at home will say maybe Ben Stokes should play instead of someone but it's a pretty good side. "To go out there and bat and get 130 on a flat pitch is poor. Australia's most experienced bowler was Glenn Maxwell, who has bowled in 13 games. "We are not talking about the greatest bowling line-up ever and England scored 130 on a flat pitch. George Bailey described them as a scary batting line-up. That wasn't scary - that was dreadful."