Doubts over pace-friendly pitch

ENGLAND risks playing into Australia’s hands if it asks for a pace-friendly pitch to be produced for the second Test.

Joe Root’s team was rolled for just 85 at the start of its most recent clash at Lord’s, where that one-off Test finished with Ireland being skittled for 38. Root described that pitch as “substandard for a Test”, bemoaning it “wasn’t even close to being a fair contest between bat and ball throughout the whole game”.

But England’s 251-run loss to Australia at Edgbaston, where the touring quicks excelled on a slow strip while Nathan Lyon spun his team to victory on day five, has ignited a groundswell of local support for Lord’s curator Karl McDermott to cook up a paceman’s paradise.

Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain have both argued a green seamer is the hosts’ best chance of levelling the fiveTest series and rattling Steve Smith in the clash that begins on Wednesday night.

It was a tactic that worked well in 2015, when Australia was all out for 60 at Trent Bridge. “Their best exponent [of swing and seam movement] Jimmy Anderson is not going to play, so they might weigh up options,” Aussie paceman Josh Hazlewood said. “The conditions have been quite bowler-friendly the last few Tests. I think there’ll definitely be a bit more in it [compared with Edgbaston], maybe just so they can get Smithy out.

“Batting on those sort of tracks is very hard work. It suits us as much as them if there is more in the wicket.”

Coach Justin Langer declared after Australia went 1-0 up that they have the squad to triumph in any conditions, no matter what is overhead or underfoot at the home of cricket. “That’s why they [selectors] have got six quicks here, to have every base covered,” Hazlewood said.

“If it’s a dry wicket then reverse-swing might come into play. If it’s very flat then someone like Mitch Starc can come into play, if it’s green and seaming around then it’s myself and Sidds.”