England surrender as Australians end Edgbaston hoodoo

Lack of red-ball cricket crucial factor in debacle Anderson injury fatally weakened hosts’ attack

In being dismissed in only 52.3 overs, after being set 97 of them to survive, England batted almost as badly as Joel Wilson umpired. As Australia have gone 1-0 up already, England will have to win two – and probably three – of the four remaining Tests if they are to regain the Ashes.

It made for an inglorious ending to the era of “Fortress Edgbaston” where Australia had not won in any format since 2001. Even a propaganda department would have been hard pushed to call it a strategic withdrawal as Pat Cummins, who recorded his 100th Test wicket, and Nathan Lyon, who passed 350, routed England. This was not the low-scoring match widely prophesied, until England were dismissed mid afternoon for 146.

If there are three main reasons, Australia won partly because England found the loss of James Anderson insuperable, partly because they have an all-time great in Steve Smith who scored 144 and 142, and partly because they were better prepared for red-ball cricket.

This superiority is only going to continue and the disparity increase: county cricket is nothing but T20 until the Lord’s Test tomorrow week, except for the Australians’ three-day game against Worcestershire, when the tourists can tone up their opening batsmen, their one weakness in this match.

No scope, in other words, for any English batsman to force his way into the home squad by weight of red-ball runs. If Warwickshire’s opener, Dominic Sibley – the leading run-scorer in the first division of the championship (940 at 63) – had a red-ball game this week, he might have given the selectors an option. Only, if Sibley were to open with Rory Burns, would Jason Roy drop to No 3, thus disturbing Joe Root again, or four, a position where he is going to face even more of Nathan Lyon?

As it is, England’s only obvious batting options are to persevere with Joe Denly, in the hope that he can eventually translate his free stroke play into a substantial innings, or to replace him with Sam Curran. Root would then stay at three and Ben Stokes, his vice-captain, move up to four – and Stokes would then have a reduced bowling load – with Jos Buttler at five and Curran at six. Given his mettle so far, Curran at six in the rest of this series could be fancied to score more runs than Denly at four.

Anderson’s replacement by Jofra Archer is straightforward, so long as the latter comes through his Sussex second XI game this week. Archer has yet to make his Test debut, but his bouncers have already ruffled Australian helmets, during the World Cup qualifier at Lord’s. England, moreover, have not yet tried extreme pace to dismiss Smith – from over or round the wicket – specifically with a leg gully and two men out.

Allowances should be made for a day-five Edgbaston pitch that offered copious spin for Lyon and uneven bounce for the quick bowlers: Rory Burns and Jonny Bairstow copped short balls that did not bounce as they would have normally. Even so, England batted poorly, too content to play a few shots, rather than adopt a thoushalt-not-pass attitude; so the way they lost by 251 runs was bad, as well as the result itself.

England, however, lost this game on day one, not five. They let Australia wriggle off the hooks of 35 for three and 122 for eight. The impact of Anderson’s absence was severe, but England did not make the most of the three seamers they had left: the same number as Australia had.

Smith and Travis Head started the revival when Stokes’s bowling was all over the place. Smith completed it in his stands of 88 with Peter Siddle and 74 with Lyon. Smith has become one of the all-time greats but Siddle, who contributed half the runs to their ninth-wicket stand, has not. England departed far too soon, far too readily, from plan A of full-length bowling just outside off stump.

It was the first time since February that Stokes had bowled in a redball game, so no wonder he found it difficult to bowl a full length; it was by banging the white ball in short of a length that he was not hit for one six during the World Cup. It was here, in Stokes’s bowling and the batting of Bairstow and Jos Buttler, that England’s shortage of red-ball preparation showed. A quart cannot be crammed into a pint pot – it is a saying which may not be familiar to those administrators who scheduled England’s summer.

On a wearing pitch, the most efficient form of bowling has always been quick off-spin, and Lyon added an extra stride during the game to his run-up to fizz ’em through. England’s right-handed batsmen had to cope with two short legs; left-handers, such as Stokes, Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad, had no chance if Lyon’s off-break landed in the right spot and spat.

Still, Roy’s dismissal was mostly self-destruction. There was nothing to be said for trying to charge Lyon and hit him off his length, because he was always going to bowl from the City End all day (bar one over from Smith). The sweep was a worthwhile shot on the basis of percentages – and Roy had got steam up by using it – but the charge to drive a six was not.

After Roy had gone at 12.18pm, the gates of “Fortress Edgbaston” were opened and the Australians entered, to the strains of their supporters who outsang England’s and had the final chant. Smith was the player of the match for mesmerising England, for making their bowlers abandon the plan that was right for the conditions, and luring them into bowling at his legs so he could pick them off ad nauseam.

Winning is one thing, psychological domination is another. Not since 2005 have England gone 1-0 down then won the Ashes, and it will take another epic effort to turn this series around.