LOSING TOUCH

Root insists he’d do it all the same again, after tame end to Gabba horror show. Now he faces most important week of his captaincy

MOMENTS after England had embarked on their customary dreadful start in Australia with a nine-wicket hammering in Brisbane, Joe Root considered whether he might have done things differently.

It had been right, he felt, to bat first against one of the world’s most potent seam attacks under stormy skies on a Gabba greentop. And it had been right to make do without Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad’s 1,156 Test wickets, and instead pick Jack Leach, whose 13 overs of left-arm spin cost 102.

Hell, if only England had made more than 147 on the first day, then held their chances on the second, they and not Australia might now be taking a 1-0 lead into Thursday’s second Test in Adelaide.

Root is a nice guy and a beautiful batsman, but what should be worrying supporters is not so much the margin of defeat — England’s seventh in nine Brisbane Tests since Ian Botham’s match-winning hundred in 1986-87 — as the disconnect between theory and reality.

His team have won one of 10 Tests since stunning India at Chennai in February, and many of their selections have been too clever by half.

Root and head coach Chris Silverwood deserve sympathy for the toll taken by Covid bubbles as well as the absence of the injured Jofra Archer. And they have been lumbered with an impossible fixture list by acquisitive administrators. Yet for so long teams have been picked with an obsessive eye on the Ashes.

How was it possible, then, that Chris Woakes bowled the opening over of a Test innings for the first time in five years? Or that Broad was omitted at a venue where he averages 24 and relishes the niggle? Or that both he and Anderson were left out for the first time since November 2016?

And how was it that an apparent acceptance earlier in the year of English finger spin’s impotence on Australian pitches gave way to the selection of Leach, who had not played a Test since March?

Woakes and Leach are both good men and wholehearted cricketers, superb when conditions suit them. But neither they nor England’s purposes were served during a match that was done and dusted in 262.5 overs — the equivalent of less than three days.

Their collapse on the fourth morning was all the more disappointing for the fight that had gone before, as Root and Dawid Malan held Australia at bay during a stand that was worth 162 — England’s third-wicket record at the Gabba.

From 220 for two at the start of play, and the deficit just 58, England had their chance. Instead, they seemed overawed by the prospect, poking and prodding as eight wickets fell before lunch for 77.

The Australians, by contrast, seemed energised. Once Malan was caught at silly point for 82 in the day’s fourth over to provide offspinner Nathan Lyon with his longawaited 400th Test wicket, they swarmed all over England.

Root did tick off his highest score in Australia, but almost immediately nibbled at Cameron Green and was caught behind for 89. And when Ollie Pope fiddled unaccountably at Lyon and was caught at slip for four, England had lost three for 11, even before the availability of the second new ball.

While Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler were together, all seemed not lost but Pat Cummins removed Stokes with a delivery that skewed off the shoulder of the bat to gully, and

Buttler fended Josh Hazlewood to Alex Carey — one of eight catches for Australia’s new wicketkeeper, a Test record for a debutant. Lyon and Green did the rest, leaving Australia to knock off 20 which they did for the loss of Carey, who was promoted to open while David Warner nursed sore ribs.

Australia insist that Warner, who had been hit by Stokes during his first-innings 94, will be fine for Adelaide. And they are also confident Hazlewood will make it after undergoing a scan on his side. Any changes Australia might make will be from a position of strength.

England, on the other hand, have decisions to make after a game in which their bright moments could be summarised all too briefly.

Rory Burns’ moving-parts technique looks more erratic than ever, to the extent that England will consider keeping him away from the first ball of the innings — something of a flaw for a Test opener.

And with Adelaide the first of two day/night, pink ball games — Hobart, the new venue for the fifth Test, is the other — it will take a brave captain to keep Anderson and Broad at arm’s length.

The series is only one game old, which means England can still trot out the old line about how well they react to adversity but they are already chasing their tails.

Root though is about to enter the most important week of his England captaincy.