NOW PILE ON THE PAIN, JOFRA

England captain Root’s message is clear as Aussies rue loss of Smith...

Joe Root has urged england to capitalise on the absence of Steve Smith from Australia’s side in today’s crucial third Ashes test and admitted he can’t wait to throw the ball to Jofra Archer.

Smith was ruled out of the game on tuesday following the blow he took to the neck from Archer at Lord’s at the weekend, leaving england hopeful they can square the series without him around to prop up the visitors’ shaky batting.

‘It is a huge hole,’ Root told the BBC. ‘Look at the runs he scored throughout the three innings he took part in. If you take 92 out of the last game, it is a huge difference, and similarly in the first game.

‘You take 280 runs out of that, it looks completely different and we could be sat here 2-0 up.

‘He is a big focal part of their team and we have got to try to capitalise on this opportunity.

‘It’s very unfortunate on their part but we had the challenge of Jimmy (Anderson) going down four overs into a test match and had to manage that without a replacement.’

Archer terrorised Australia’s batsmen during the drawn second test at Lord’s, striking a dozen blows of one kind or other on their bodies on his way to match figures of 44-13-91-5.

And Root was almost certainly opting for understatement when he spoke of looking forward to seeing how his new attack leader would go at Headingley.

‘I’m intrigued to see how he kicks on from that start,’ he said.

So is everyone. Not that Archer seems to be feeling under any pressure. His priority on arriving in Leeds was working out how to play his beloved Fortnite video game in his hotel room — and, yesterday, he seemed not to have a care in the world during practice.

there was Archer bowling left-arm spin, as he is wont to do in the nets, before showing the footballing prowess he apparently displays back in Brighton with his friends in a team imaginatively called egg Fried Reus. All with a smile on his face, too.

But it will be with more extremely fast, skilful and, at times, brutal bowling that england hope Archer will today make another dramatic impact against Australia.

‘He’s one of those guys who just seems born for these occasions,’ continued Root. ‘once you’ve got a Super over in a World Cup final in your back pocket, it makes everything a bit easier.

‘He’s just a relaxed character who is unfazed by anything and he loved everything about last week. I could see that in conversations with him.

‘I’d say: “Give it everything for three overs and we’ll have a look” — and then, two overs in, he wanted four more. Jofra wants to get out there and make things happen and that’s very impressive in a young man.’

And it is what Archer can do for the rest of the attack that is particularly exciting for an england team who have finally found a genuinely quick and hostile bowler capable of propelling them to a successful future, even if they did have to go to Barbados to find him.

‘I’m also intrigued to see how the rest of the guys work around him,’ added Root.

‘they will come into the game even more because of the way he’s bowling.

‘No one has mentioned Stuart Broad has ten wickets already in this series, which is a very impressive start by him.

‘Stuart is enjoying the fact Jofra is getting a lot of the headlines and he can just go about his business and do his thing. It’s important you dovetail as a bowling group and we did that exceptionally well last week.’

Now the question is whether the Ashes tide really has turned and england can carry on where they left off at Lord’s by earning a Specsavers series-levelling victory that was only denied them in the second test by the rain that wiped out virtually two full days’ play.

they will never have a better chance. the Archer-induced absence of Smith, for this game at least, robs Australia of the only batsman on either side who has looked capable of making matchdefining hundreds in this series.

And the elephant in Australia’s room remains — that they are competing with virtually ten players, because the captain who was brought in to rid them of the toxic culture that cost Smith so dearly, tim Paine, is not worth his place in the side. Yet if england really are to win on what looks a good Headingley pitch, there must be more solidity in a batting line-up that is still worryingly fragile and over-reliant on the lower middle-order to bail them out.

In a way, the call-up of the hugely promising ollie Pope as cover for Jason Roy proves the need for more specialist top-order players. Pope played two tests against India last summer at No 4 before it became clear he would be far better suited to six.

Now, with an unbeaten double century for Surrey this week at No 5, Pope would bat at four again today if Roy was ruled out by his final concussion test, having been struck in the nets during practice on tuesday. Joe Denly would move up to open. the chances are Roy will be fit to play, but his position in the order is clearly causing much debate within the hierarchy as trevor Bayliss has made it clear he believes the destructive batsman should be at four.

the problem there is that the position is currently occupied by Denly, who has been championed by national selector ed Smith.

‘I obviously think Jason should open. otherwise, he’d be at four,’ insisted Root. ‘there’s a lot of talk about our batting order because of the options we have, but at no stage are we trying to reinvent the wheel. We’ve got to play to our strengths and be flexible over the course of the series, but I feel Jason can have a really big impact at the start of an innings. It may not have happened yet, but we fully expect him to go out and do that.’

For Australia, Marnus Labuschagne takes Smith’s place — as he did for the second half of the last test — but Paine believes others will have to step up this week.

‘Clearly, they are huge shoes to fill and we don’t put all that pressure on Marnus,’ said Paine. ‘Marnus comes in to play a role in our team and it’s up to everyone else, particularly our senior players, to make sure we give that little bit more and cover Steve as best we can.’