Adelaide Preview
All the latest news in the build-up to the second Test
Australia v England Second Test, December 2-6, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 03:30 (Day-NightTest)
BEFORE this Ashes series began, the daynight Test in Adelaide appeared to be England’s best chance of beating Australia. Now, following defeat in Brisbane, Joe Root’s team know winning here is a must.
With the third Test at the WACA in Perth – a ground England have not won at since 1978 – another loss in Adelaide is likely to signal the end of their hopes of retaining the urn.
The good news is that the pink ball – which swung appreciably under lights during England’s tour game against a Cricket Australia XI at the same venue last month – is a leveller.
Root knows that conditions and the weather forecast will play into the hands of his attack.
Now they have to take advantage against an Australian batting line-up that is vulnerable aside from the twin threats of opener David Warner and captain Steve Smith.
“I think it has come at a good time for us,” said Root. “We obviously played at this ground a couple of weeks ago and have a good idea of what the conditions can be like. It might be a little bit cooler as well looking at the forecast and with a bit of rain around. If that is the case, you are looking at a lot more English-style conditions.
“You saw as well at Brisbane as soon as the ball did do anything sideways, we were massively in the game. I think that is going to be our big focus moving forward, really being ruthless as a bowling unit at getting the ball moving laterally and finding different skills individually which are going to get stuff out of the wicket when it’s slightly flatter.
“If we can do that, I have full confidence we will bowl them out cheaply on a number of occasions on this tour.”
Smith, fresh from his matchdefining unbeaten 141 at the Gabba, agrees conditions in Adelaide could play into his opponents’ hands.
“Perhaps,” he said.“I also think that the wicket probably looks a little bit flatter than it has here in previous day-nighters and I also know that it can be at night one of the quickest wickets in the country which I think brings us back into play a bit more.
“But I guess we won’t know until the game actually begins. I think it’s going to be an exciting Test match and no doubts it will be a packed house here in Adelaide. Obviously coming off the back of a good win in Brisbane it’s going to be an exciting week for us again.”
England are still smarting from their 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane during a game they should have seized in the first three days.
“I’m sure they’ll come back hard,” said Smith. “There’s no doubt about that. They’re a quality side but we’ve just got to control what we can control and that’s playing good cricket. We ended the game really well the other day. We can probably take a little bit of momentum from that and hopefully start this game really well.”
England are set to name an unchanged XI for this Test, with Moeen Ali expected to overcome the cut spinning finger he sustained in Brisbane. Jake Ball is also in line to retain his place despite a poor match in Brisbane, where he returned figures of 1-115 across both innings. That means no Test debut for Craig Overton.
Smith, though, has a healthy respect for England’s attack, even if they appear worryingly reliant on opening bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
“Chris Woakes is a muchimproved bowler,” he said. “He has some good skills. He bowled reasonably well in this last Test match. Ball has some good skills. Moeen probably didn’t bowl at his best, but his record speaks for itself.
“They’re a good attack and our batters are going to have to step up if they are going to get the result we want on this wicket.”
But there was a warning for Root after Australia dismissed England’s captain lbw in both innings at the Gabba.
Smith, set to go in with the same three pace bowlers in Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc for this Test, said:“It was nice that our plans for Root worked. I read something on Twitter the other day about a trend that’s been occurring with him since the start of 2016. He’s got out lbw a lot.
“It’s nice that we are able to open up that side of his bat, and I saw him working on it in the nets the other day, so he’s trying to fix those issues. That’s tough to do in the middle of the series, so he’ll have some things going through his head out in the middle.
“That’s something we can play on out in the middle as well. Perhaps a bit of chat.”