Big guns must fire to avoid humiliation
ENGLAND FACE ANOTHER WHITEWASH
Iheard what Joe root said after england’s defeat in adelaide about his side still being ‘ massively’ in the series, and good luck to him for staying positive.
But the reality is that if england fall behind in the first innings at Perth, we’re looking at their third 5-0 whitewash in four visits to australia.
all is not lost, sure, and england will be telling themselves that they can even draw one of the last three games and still retain the ashes.
But they’ve got two areas they desperately need to sort out before the WaCa — and if I were in their camp right now, those two areas would be causing me some concern.
The first is whether they have the firepower to take 20 wickets on good decks, which is what the WaCa will be.
It may lack the extreme pace and bounce that made it such a special place when I was around, but it should still offer a bit more value for strokes than the Gabba or the adelaide Oval did during the first two Tests.
and that puts the onus on england’s attack to prove they can match australia’s bowling. at adelaide, we saw both sides of the equation.
england made bad use of the new ball on the first day, when Jimmy anderson and Stuart Broad bowled too short, but brilliant use of it under lights on the third evening. Both men were unplayable at times and Chris Woakes showed how good he can be.
Perth is not a happy hunting ground for england and that will continue to be the case if they don’t get their lengths right. I’ve heard talk of them trying to bowl like I did, but I don’t see it at the moment. I rarely went back of a length in australia. My goal was always to hit the top of off stump. Predictable but effective.
The second area of concern is whether their top order can score enough runs to put australia under pressure. adelaide was earmarked as a Test england might be favourites to win, but in that first innings their batsmen never gave themselves a chance.
We saw at Brisbane that Mark Stoneman, James Vince and dawid Malan can all score runs at this level, but the fact remains that after two Tests the only centuries in this series have come from australians — Steve Smith in the first Test and Shaun Marsh in the second. If england are to have any chance of hanging on to the urn, they need to bat first at the WaCa and get runs on the board. and that means a contribution from alastair Cook, who looked good for 37 in the second innings at adelaide before getting himself out to Nathan Lyon.
Speaking of batting first, I’m sure root would do things differently at the toss if he had his time again.
It’s a tough one, because I guess he looked at the overhead conditions and thought there might be a few early wickets on offer. But local wisdom would have told him to bat first regardless, and his senior bowlers then dropped too short, which surprised me.
hindsight’s great for the pundits but when the opposition are stuck in and end up declaring at 442 for eight on the second day, you know something’s gone wrong.
That said, he wasn’t the only captain to cop a bit of flak.
Smith will have learned a lot from his decision not to enforce the follow- on, even though he obviously wanted to spare his attack — who have been injuryprone — the ordeal of bowling again immediately.
If england had been out for 30 or 40 runs fewer, I think Smith would have sent them back in. In the end, australia were probably lucky to lose only four wickets that evening, because anderson was unplayable.
england’s only hope now is for their four big guns to grab the Perth Test by the scruff of the neck. Cook and root have to lead the way by scoring big firstinnings runs, and Broad and anderson have to nail the right length with the new ball.
My hunch is they’re not going to find it easy. Lyon’s bowling beautifully right now, especially to the left-handers — there’s just no comparison with england’s off- spinner Moeen ali. and all australia’s quicks are pulling their weight.
I saw a headline likening Josh hazlewood to my style of bowling and I had to feel a bit sorry for him.
Those kind of comparisons are never helpful to the guy whose career isn’t over yet. But fair play to him, he set up australia’s charge on the final day in adelaide with the early wickets of Woakes and root.
and it’s great to see him show english fans what he’s capable of after he struggled to control the dukes ball during the 2015 ashes in england.
Josh is one of the reasons australia have the edge right now. They have more firepower with the ball, both with seam and spin, and their batsmen are scoring runs when it matters.
I wish england luck at Perth. The truth is, they need it.
“Anderson and Broad have to nail right length with new ball ”