2017 Root’s two go-to guys have upped and gone
THIS Ashes series is more likely to end with an uncomfortable postmortem and blood-letting than a Downing Street reception.
Australia may have been frustrated by rain which interrupted an apparent charge to victory on day four, but sooner or later the relentless waves of attack look set to overwhelm English defences fatally some time between now and January 8.
If that point comes, high on the list of topics to pick over will be the contribution, or lack of it, from two of England’s biggest guns, Stuart Broad and Alastair Cook, in a campaign in which captain Joe Root has needed his ‘go-to guys’ and found them gone. His own lack of form has been the double whammy.
Needing a heroic rearguard to save the third Test and keep hope alive, Root was out to the very first ball he faced from off-spinner Nathan Lyon, attempting an expansive drive.
At that point, England were 60-2 and still trailing Australia’s record Ashes total Down Under of 662-9 declared by 199 runs.
It was a dismissal symptomatic of a scrambled mind and a poor reflection of his undoubted talent.
It looked like the pressures of captaining England through two heavy defeats with another in the offing was weighing heavy.
As for Broad, since the first innings in Brisbane when he took 3-49, he has bowled without noticeable cutting edge. His 0-142 in Australia’s first innings was his worst Test figures ever. And, more worryingly, you have to track back to January 2016 for his last five-for – 6-17 at Johannesburg against South Africa.
Yesterday England confirmed that Broad has been nursing a long-standing niggle in his left IN PERTH knee which had necessitated a scan when he arrived in Perth last week.
It seems as if powering in for so long is beginning to show.
Cook, too, has looked a fading force during this series and here, when England needed him, he jabbed uncertainly at a quick, full delivery from Josh Hazlewood which the big Australian caught brilliantly by sticking out a big right paw low in his follow-through. This is Cook’s 150th Test and it will be one of his least favourite. His series scores read 2, 7, 37, 16, 7, 14 for an average of 13.83 – like Broad, his worst numbers from any of the 44 series he has competed in. Cook has looked undone not by a lack of courage, application or appetite, as has been suggested, but by the speed at which the ball is coming at him. At 32, he may be close to calling it a day but he will factor in to any decision the fact he is unlikely to have to face such speed in the near future or perhaps ever again. On the speed front, England’s new faces have coped better, including Mark Stoneman and James Vince. The latter batted beautifully in England’s second innings before getting an unplayable ball from Mitchell Starc which altered trajectory from leg stump to off after hitting a crack in the pitch. Despite some of the pundits of Channel Nine who are never evenhanded when gloating is also available, insisting that it was the “ball of the series”, it was tempting to put ‘Vince b Crack 55’ as it was to credit Starc, despite his accuracy. Earlier in the day, the twin pillars of Australia’s first innings had fallen early.
After flogging England’s bowlers ruthlessly throughout Saturday’s play, Mitch Marsh failed to add to his overnight score, falling lbw to Jimmy Anderson with the second ball of the day, with Steve Smith going the same way four overs later for 239 – his highest Test score.
Starc was dismissed later in the same over after he and Tim Paine got their wires crossed monumentally over a quick single after another lbw shout from Anderson.
In the confusion Vince picked the ball up at gully and trotted in to whip off the bails.
Australia’s lead at that stage was 158 with seven down but Paine and Pat Cummins added a frustrating stand of 93 for the eighth wicket before Anderson claimed Cummins as his third lbw victim.
When Lyon was caught by Moeen at mid-on, again off Anderson, Smith waved them in.
Anderson was to finish with 4-116, which will be as hard as he has worked for four wickets in his career.
That three were lbws showed how influential the cracks had started to be, given lateral movement had been impossible the day before.
That was not wholly good news for England as Vince found out.
But Root will be thankful at least that even at 35, Anderson is showing no signs of decline.
Between now and Sydney, the beleaguered England skipper will have cause to be thankful of that as they try to keep the Australian attack from overwhelming their position.