Root’s men like feel of Adelaide
CAPTAIN Joe Root says his English team will feel at home amid rain, overcast skies and cool Adelaide temperatures in the second Ashes Test.
“It’s very English outside. The weather looks favourable to us,” Root said yesterday.
“It was damp last night and there’s forecast to be a bit of rain around over the first couple of days, which should play into our hands.”
When England and Australian teams arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday, the South Australian capital was in the midst of a three-day roast as temperatures neared 40 degrees.
But a cool change has temperatures of between 19 to 23 degrees forecast from today to Wednesday.
The conditions should exacerbate the movement of the pink ball in the inaugural daynight Test between cricket’s oldest foes.
But after inspecting Adelaide’s pitch, Australian captain Steve Smith tempered expectations of massive movement off the wicket.
“It looks a good wicket ... a bit harder than we have probably seen it here for a while for a pink ball game,” Smith said.
“The wicket looks like there won’t be as much sideways movement perhaps as in previous years.”
Smith said England may struggle to repeat its first Test tactics of trying to slow the game down.
“It will be interesting to see whether they change up their tactics and go down that path again,” he said.
“Traditionally we have seen with the pink ball that things can happen pretty quickly.” His counterpart Root said sluggish scoring rates from both teams in the first Test, which Australia won by 10 wickets, were due to the slow Brisbane pitch. “You might see a different style (in Adelaide),” Root said.