Brisbane Horrors
Chris Stocks rates England’s showing at the Gabba
THIS opening Ashes Test was a case of ifs, head-butts and maybes for an England team who left the Gabba chastened and humiliated despite competing for much of the contest.
The humiliation was less to do with a ten-wicket defeat that has put Australia in control of this series and more to do with the news about Jonny Bairstow’s clashing of heads with Cameron Bancroft in a Perth nightclub that broke in the hours before a fifth and final day that saw the hosts cruise to their target of 170.
England were made to look like mugs over the Bairstow incident that had taken place in a Perth bar four weeks previously.
Australia used it to get to Bairstow on the field – his aberration of a shot on day four that saw him hole out to third man when well set on 42 and his team looking likely to set their opponents a 200-plus chase a symptom of the sledging that got under his skin.
If England think the Australians are going to change their ways over the remaining four Tests then they need to wise up.
Steve Smith, whose superlative unbeaten 141 kept his team in this Test when England were threatening to run away with it, was the difference between the teams.
Joe Root, whose failure to match his opposite number’s impact with the bat proved critical, was probably right to state his team had missed an opportunity to inflict Australia’s first defeat at the Gabba since 1988.
“It doesn’t really feel like a tenwicket defeat,” said England’s captain. “We came here fully confident we could get the win.
“The wicket got better as the match went on. Steve Smith’s knock was incredible – take it out and we would’ve bowled them out for 150.
“We need to address some of the things we’ve learnt from this game, but for three days the majority of the time we outplayed Australia.”
Chief among those issues is making sure batsmen cash in on starts. On no less than seven occasions in this match England players had reached 38 or more and didn’t go on to reach three figures.
“We would have loved to score 100-150 more in the first innings,” said coach Trevor Bayliss of his team’s total of 302. “A number of players got starts but nobody made 150-plus that all teams look for.”
James Vince’s first-innings 83 was a fine start to his Ashes career, as were the innings from opener Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan.
Those three can perhaps be excused, given they had just 15 caps between them heading into this Test.
Moeen Ali, who twice got himself in, Root, out lbw after reaching fifty in his team’s second innings, and Bairstow cannot.
Bayliss had said in the lead-up to this opening Test: “We need batsmen scoring 160s not 60s.”
That point still stands heading into this weekend’s second Test at Adelaide. Then there is the tail. Twice England’s lower order was blown away by Australia’s fast bowlers – losing their final six first-innings wickets for 56 and their last four in the second for just ten.
The absence of Ben Stokes makes that tail longer but on a two-paced Brisbane pitch the ability of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins to bully batsmen with the short ball was worrying.
Smith said:“I think we’ve made
our intentions pretty clear on how we’re going to bowl to the tail. I think they know that as well. So they can expect a bit more of a barrage, I’d say.”
England’s own bowling left a lot to be desired aside from the excellent James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Both went at under two runs an over in Australia’s first innings. But the back-up from Chris Woakes and Jake Ball wasn’t good enough. Both were down on pace and failed to move the new or old Kookaburra ball.
Saying that, England still had Australia 76-4 in their first innings. Smith, though, batted patiently for his slowest Test century as Root chose a multitude of funky fields to cut off his favoured scoring areas. None of those plans worked. England and Root need to come up with some more effective ones if they are to come back from this result.