England draft in Garton after Ball injury setback

Pace bowler could be struggling for first Test Woakes hits back after tourists’ batting collapse

Jake Ball, the 26 year-old Nottinghamshire pace bowler, has been diagnosed with “a right-ankle ligament strain” and is regarded as doubtful for England’s third and last warm-up game in Townsville – in which he will have to play in order to be passed fit for the first Test in Brisbane on Nov 23.

Ball is a serious loss because he has been England’s sharpest pace bowler apart from James Anderson – or he was until Chris Woakes ran through Cricket Australia’s top order with a four-wicket opening spell under lights in Adelaide.

In the absence of other seamers, so many of them injured, England have called up the England Lions and Sussex left-arm seamer George Garton as cover in Townsville for the final Ashes warm-up match.

Garton is then scheduled to rejoin the Lions party for their camp in Brisbane and Perth. The Lions fly into Brisbane on Nov 14, for a twoweek camp with a red-ball focus culminating in a three-day match against a Queensland XI at the Allan Border Oval from Nov 27-29. Garton, though only 20, could make such a sufficient impression in the Townsville game, when replacing Ball, that he could become a sudden addition to the Test squad. He is the nearest England can get to anyone approaching Mitchell Starc, Australia’s outstanding left-arm fast bowler.

While England waited for Ball’s scan, Woakes reduced the Cricket Australia XI to 25 for seven, within spitting distance of the lowest firstclass total ever recorded here, 41.

“He [Woakes] has got better and better every spell he’s bowled,” said James Anderson, who has been appointed England’s vice-captain. Anderson could have said the same of Craig Overton after he, too, participated in the disintegration of the home side. Woakes took four for 17 and Overton two for 10. England’s batsmen staged an embarrassing collapse of four wickets for only three runs. “It’s not ideal, is it?” Anderson said about England’s collapse.

At least Ball was not missed when England set a target of 268. The floodlights were on, the ball was pink, the seam movement just enough to catch the edge, and all but one of the batsmen were novices, unwanted by the six Sheffield Shield sides. Woakes had got out cheaply, pushing tentatively forward at a ball of fullish length, and he gave the CA XI large doses of the same medicine.

Jonny Bairstow engineered the recovery from 125 for seven, helped by a plucky knock from Mason Crane. Bairstow pulled a couple of sixes and, with the aid of a first-in- nings lead of 60, restored England’s self-respect. Otherwise, only Mark Stoneman batted well, making his third consecutive 50. As Alastair Cook has been so scratchy, Stoneman has appeared to be on his fourth Ashes tour, Cook on his first. To compare him with Cook’s 11 other Test opening partners, Stoneman is a mix of Michael Carberry and Andrew Strauss – judging the ball outside off stump and leaving it with minimal movement like Carberry, and favouring the cut like Strauss.

One concern about Stoneman would be he has not yet been subjected to more than the odd bouncer, the second that there will be more danger in his favourite back-cut here than in England. It got him out when he chopped on a ball too close. Cook at least spent 30 overs in grounding out his 32, then wickets tumbled. Dawid Malan edged a ball angled across him; James Vince could have read the situation more astutely, but preferred an expansive on-drive. Overton recorded a pair before bowling a fuller length than hitherto, but on this occasion one England tailender reached double figures.