England surrender as self-inflicted wounds take toll

Selection flaws exposed by a disciplined attack Spirited response in the field but Ashes slip away

A disaster. Spiritedly as England fought in the field to limit Australia’s lead to 283, with four wickets left, their batting was a disaster – and the most annoying sort of disaster because it was largely self-inflicted.

Australia’s bowling by their big three of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson was superb, but they did not swing the ball under a cloudless sky, only seamed it. A Test-class batting line-up could have survived with self-discipline like Marnus Labuschagne’s and a better technique against the bouncer, instead of capitulating for 67.

The dismissals of Jason Roy, Joe Denly and Ben Stokes were the result of their own poor shot selecyear tion. Rory Burns, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer were bounced out, while the failures of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were self-inflicted in a different way – by England’s poor decision-making about their batting order.

For a few sunny minutes on the second morning no sign of disaster loomed, no sign that the inherent brittleness of England’s batting would be exposed again, no sign that England would be bowled out for their lowest Ashes total since 1948. Burns and Roy took a quick single apiece, Burns clipped a four, and conversations in the capacity crowd may have turned to how Australia were going to bowl 98 overs on a hot and extended day with only four bowlers. By rolling England over in 27.5 overs, soon after lunch, was the answer.

Roy led the procession by throwing his bat at a wide ball, to be caught at first slip. It was his most inexcusable Test dismissal. Top-order batsman or lower, attacking batsman or defensive, nobody should have chased such a wide delivery in the fourth over of a new ball at Headingley, when getting through the morning little scathed was fundamental to England’s chance of regaining the Ashes.

But why has Roy, who is in only his fourth Test, been forced to learn on the job? Through poor selection. By the end of England’s tour of Sri Lanka, before Christmas, it was manifest that Keaton Jennings was not going to alter his footwork enough to be a Test opener, and that Joe Denly was too loose in his shot selection aged 33 to change his spots; yet both were selected for the three-test series in the West Indies ahead of Roy, who could have cut his teeth against Kemar Roach and Shane Gabriel: better preparation for the Ashes than a game against Ireland.

Root, having been dismissed first ball at Lord’s, was caught second ball by David Warner – a screamer to first slip’s left. And why was Root batting at three, Denly at four? It made no sense. No 3 might be Root’s correct position if the day ever dawns when England have an established opening pair, but not in this series when he is being constantly exposed to the new ball.

Denly ahead of Root was the change in England’s batting order which should have been made after Lord’s. Instead, England made a change which should not have been made, promoting Bairstow from seven to six and throwing another spanner into the team’s engine room. Bairstow, as keeper-batsman at seven, works, and always has, until the selectors decided in May last to promote him to five. At seven his role is clear: he plays himself in, then either attacks or counter-attacks. His prod at Hazlewood betrayed understandable confusion about his latest position.

Denly, as normal, played one cover drive that was delectable, then one indefensible. So did Stokes, who chased a wide one as Roy and Denly had done. Stokes may have been trying too hard to compensate for his wayward spell in their first innings, when his first five overs and Woakes’s first seven were plundered for 73 runs by Warner and Marnus Labuschagne to give Australia their working total.

Burns, hit on the shoulder by Cummins, was bounced out in the same over, gloving down the leg side. Nothing seems to be wrong with his idiosyncratic stance except he does not get his hands high enough to hook downwards.

Woakes, not the first pace bowler to dislike bouncers, was caught down the leg side first ball after lunch; while Archer, in ducking Cummins’ bouncer but raising his bat, feathered a catch to the keeper. A point to Australia’s analyst too as Jos Buttler, who uses his left elbow little, drove low to shortish extra cover. The glass was shattered. Hard though their aching bowlers tried to overcome the deficit of 112, there were too many shards and splinters to reassemble the mirror.

Archer could not save England a second time. After 69.5 overs in the last week, of a higher intensity than he had ever experienced, he cramped up in his left thigh and limped off before returning. Stuart Broad was exhausted too. Stokes, in a long and splendid spell, banged life out of the easy-paced pitch, having Labuschagne dropped off a straightforward chance by Root at first slip and off a very hard one to Bairstow’s right, to the sound of doors being bolted.

Warner could not maintain his revitalisation – four top slip catches to follow his 61 – but Labuschagne continued to make up for Steve Smith’s absence. He left so well on line and length, as England never did, and did not donate his wicket. As Travis Head and Matthew Wade played worthy little innings, Khawaja looks the most vulnerable so that Labuschagne would bat at three, Smith at four, at Old Trafford.

Jack Leach, with his first delivery, took a wicket with a wonderball, none thereafter. Perhaps he should open England’s second innings again, as a daytime security officer if not nightwatchman, to protect England’s captain, as their opening pair cannot.