Roy cannot defend so move him down order
Opener needs to drop to No4 but it was stupid gamble on Anderson that really hurt England
Jason Roy is the latest in a long list of openers since Andrew Strauss and if England do not move him down the order he will go the same way as the rest and be dropped. In the second innings he played a brainless shot. He defended well, then suddenly jumped down the pitch to drive through the off side against the ball turning back at him and was bowled through the gate. I don’t think he has the mindset to defend and stay in over a long period.
It did not help England’s batting cause when Graham Thorpe, the batting coach, said “play your normal game” because the normal game for Roy is to hit it, whack it and smack it. Thorpe is telling them to be positive, look to score runs. It is madness. In this situation of trying to save the match a quick fifty is not as good as staying in for three hours.
I have seen enough of Roy as an opener to know that he has to bat down the order or not at all. That is where his stroke play has a chance of flourishing.
Having Australia 122 for eight on the first day and being beaten so badly is a huge kick in the teeth and England have some serious thinking to do before the next Test.
Jonny Bairstow gives me the impression he is trying to score off every ball and when he plays the odd defensive shot he puts more pressure on himself to hit the next ball, whatever the line or length. In Test cricket that is a recipe for getting out and that is what he has been doing.
There have been too many failures. Since his 110 in Colombo batting at No3 last November he has played five Tests, nine innings and scored 125 and been out nine times. That is not good enough. He needs to reassess the way he bats in Test matches and have a frank and honest appraisal about how he is getting out.
Why is he attempting such weird
strokes? Is he still in one-day mode, crashing every white ball to the boundary?
If he does not start to curb this indiscipline then his stellar batting in the World Cup will not save him from losing his Test place. He will get the sack.
In sport we are judged on results and because of his excellent past batting performances in Test cricket he will be given some leeway and an extended time to get his run-scoring back on track but eventually, if he does not do it, the captain and selectors will move on to someone else. His big threat comes from Ben Foakes.
Joe Denly looked good in the first innings with excellent footwork, good defence and superb cover drives but then he missed a straight one. My first impression was: is he going to flatter and let us down like James Vince or is there something more to come?
He is starting a Test career at 33. He is not a youngster. We do not want a pretty failure. When he gets a start he must go on to score runs. There was no shame in him getting out in the second innings against the turning ball. When you first go in and there is a lot of spin I don’t care how good you are, it is very, very difficult. It takes every bit of skill you can muster just to survive. It feels like the bowler is bowling hand grenades.
If you can make a start, make 20 runs, you will get used to the amount of spin and then it becomes much easier. These slow, turning pitches give you a lot of time to adjust, stay back a lot, let the ball come to you. When you can relax it becomes a totally different game.
All that said, it was picking Jimmy Anderson and him going down injured after four overs that probably lost England the Test. Why? Because England had Australia 122 for eight in their first innings despite being a bowler short. That extra bowler may well have made the difference in polishing off the tail cheaply and would have spread the workload among our seamers during the long Australia second innings.
Anderson had plenty of net bowling but so many of us explayers will tell you nets are no substitute for bowling in a match.
I understand Jimmy’s desire to play at the start of an Ashes series. I understand how important he is as the leader of England’s bowling unit with 575 Test wickets.
I get it that he would like to achieve the magical figure of 600 wickets but didn’t anyone think of the consequences if he broke down and left the team a major seamer short? Obviously not.
Years ago when I played, he would have had to prove his match fitness before being selected. He has had a calf muscle injury and not bowled in a match for nearly four weeks.
Last week we were told that he was fit to play at Lord’s against Ireland, so why didn’t they pick him to play in that match, when he would not have been extended too much but been able to prove his match fitness?
Every player, but particularly every bowler, needs to start a match fit because injuries can occur during a Test. When that happens it is just bad luck. But to gamble that Jimmy would be all right on the day was stupid. It was an unnecessary risk that was a huge early blow because cricket only allows substitutes for concussion injuries.
It needed the selectors, coach and captain to make a decision with their heads and not their hearts. They could not do that.
Having Australia 122 for eight on day one and then losing so badly is a huge kick in the teeth