It is crazy of Root to flog Stokes this way
IT WAS worrying to watch Joe Root bowling his seamers into the ground on the second day of the second Test. England left out Jack Leach but if Root is going to be their spinner, he has to bowl himself far more than 20 overs in an innings of 150 overs.
Ben Stokes, in particular, looked dead on his feet by the end of the day. England should be looking after Stokes so soon into his comeback after a long break, not making him do the hard yards in the enforcer role.
You can be sure on the third day Nathan Lyon will at some point be on at one end getting turn and bounce from this dry pitch while the seamers rotate at the other. That way you can conserve the seamers’ energy for twilight when there is most in it for them.
The only real plus for England so far in this Test has been the performance of Ollie Robinson. If he can bowl like this with a Kookaburra ball in Australia, he is going to take a lot of Test wickets. He just needs to work on his match fitness so he can keep coming back strong.
As for the batsmen, opening is the hardest job in cricket but Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed had clearly not learned from the way Australia went about their business.
Yes, Marnus Labuschagne was out misjudging a straight one, but in general the Australians left the ball well and played for their off-stump. It is the way to go in Australia and Labuschagne, David Warner and Steve Smith all grafted for their runs.
It was very different when England came to bat. The openers had spent the best part of two hard days in the field and their brains would have been scrambled when they had to go straight back out there under lights in challenging conditions.
Their mindset would not have been helped by how they fielded. Hameed, who wore shin pads all day, misfielded too often, while Burns was again sloppy.
But they just could not follow Australia’s example. Mitchell Starc, immediately bowling fuller than England and not afraid to go for runs, produced a good delivery to snare Burns but the England man will know he could have left it on length.
Burns, 31, badly needs a score in the second innings. But let us not just presume the alternative is better because Zak Crawley had a rough time before he was left out.
Burns needs to find a way of getting past Starc if he is to keep his place in this series and he is only delaying the inevitable by not taking first strike any more.
For Hameed, 24, to then chip the ball to mid-on after seeing Australia grind down the England seamers and give them nothing was hugely disappointing.
You could see how much it meant to Australia and debutant Michael Neser. Hameed had looked pretty composed in Brisbane and has left the ball reasonably well, but he has had two soft dismissals now, having gloved down the leg side at the Gabba.
He has to realise that in Australia against this attack he will soon get an unplayable ball, so he cannot afford to give it away in the meantime.
Burns and Hameed were not the only poor performers in the field. England’s display was sloppy, summed up by 11 no-balls, one of them stopping Robinson getting Labuschagne earlier than he did.
There were overthrows, too, which England continue to do when they do not need to. I’ve seen them do it in practice and they have almost trained their brains to let the ball go at every opportunity rather than hold on to it if there is no chance of a run out. It might sound like a small thing but it sets the tone.
It was a hugely disappointing opening two days of this Test for England but for Australia, after losing captain Pat Cummins to Covid isolation before a ball was bowled, it has been pretty much perfect.
Stand-in captain Smith will be delighted with that.