England’s flaky top order fears
Brittle batsmen keep collapsing
JAMES Anderson’s first act as England vice-captain in Adelaide was to call out its fragile batting, and coach Trevor Bayliss concedes it’s the elephant in the room this Ashes defence.
England’s 6-31 collapse on the third night of its tour match against the Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide underlined the flakiness of an ensemble without the safety net of premium all-rounders Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.
“It has been a bit of a concern for us for a little while,” Bayliss said of collapses labelled “not ideal” by Anderson.
“We have games like that where we have lost wickets and it is a concern, but we’ve got a reasonably inexperienced lineup when it comes to international cricket. They are learning all the time and it’s not from want of trying.”
Even with Stokes and Ali, England’s batting wobbled in a 2-1 series victory against the West Indies last northern summer. Stokes’s knocks of 100 and 58 combined with Ali’s 84 failed to rescue England from an embarrassing five-wicket second Test loss to the West Indies at Leeds.
However, Stokes topscored with 60 to repair a 5-63, firstinnings collapse that set up a third Test win at Lord’s.
Former skipper Alastair Cook is integral to England’s strategy of blunting an Australian attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but failed to impress with scores of 15 and 32 in England’s win against the CA XI.
Greenhorns Dawid Malan and James Vince must be sheltered from the new ball.
Yet, Cook hasn’t exceeded 32 since amassing a matchwinning 243 in the first Test against the West Indies at Birmingham last August and was labelled “rusty” by CA coach Ryan Harris in Adelaide.
Cook has 11,629 Test runs, but Bayliss noted the 147-Test opener isn’t renowned for artisan stroke play.
“Cooky at the top of the order, I haven’t really got too many concerns about him, he has been in this situation before. Obviously he would like to be scoring a few more runs,” Bayliss said.
Durham’s three-Test opener Mark Stoneman is yet to bed down his partnership with Cook but is England’s most consistent performer with scores of 85, 61 and 51 against the WA and CA XIs. Bayliss wants tons in the bank before the Ashes opener at the Gabba.
“It would be great if we could have some hundreds, that is for sure,” Bayliss said.
Jake Ball was set to make his Test debut as the fourth seamer in Brisbane with Stokes absent, but strained ankle ligaments in Adelaide. Steve Finn, Toby RolandJones and Mark Wood are on the rehabilitation trail.
Old firm Anderson, Broad and Chris Woakes are still standing with Craig Overton, replacement duo Tom Curran and 20-year-old slinger George Garton all coveting debuts.
Bayliss hopes Ball will be available for the first Test.