Collapsing for third time in a row isn’t okay

Ithought Pat Cummins being ruled out of the second Test through pandemic protocols had the potential to be the Glenn McGrath 2005 moment of this Ashes. One-nil down, the opposition’s best bowler misses the game in freak circumstances. But for similarities to McGrath standing on the ball at Edgbaston 16 years ago to be retained, we had to bat first.

If the Gabba was a 50-50 call and arguably a good toss to lose, there is no getting away from the fact that this one in Adelaide was a huge one to win.

This was a 100-per-cent bat-first pitch. Do that and do it well in day-night Test cricket, you can control the times at which you get the new ball under lights with fresh bowlers.

I think we held the game well on an opening day which returned a bit of a strange scorecard: Australia were 221 for two at the end of play and you would expect it to be something closer to 321 when losing so few wickets.

But they didn’t particularly time the ball well, the pitch didn’t allow them to, and although there was an argument that we could have bowled fuller, because the ball did so little, our economy rates would have gone through the roof.

Without movement, fuller means you’re bowling genuine halfvolleys and that’s not a great place to be. As the television coverage here has pointed out, this is the least a pitch has moved in Australia since 2014, so we held the game well, in my opinion.

As a new-ball bowler, you are hunting three wickets in the first session of a Test, and we pretty much deserved that kind of return. We had a review overturned, lost another and Chris Woakes probably had David Warner when the umpires couldn’t decide whether he’d trapped the ball or not.

Until Alex Carey came in at 294 for five, we felt well in the game. Then, Australia owned the rest of day two. They weren’t necessarily thinking about runs but time — they knew exactly when they wanted to take the new ball. Namely, when the floodlights were on.

It’s very tough to come in and bat against fresh bowlers at that time of day and but for lightning the damage to our first innings could have been worse. We could’ve been staring at four down.

So, we were happy at two down and then not losing a wicket on the third morning.

Joe Root and Dawid Malan made batting look pretty easy: there were no real false shots, appeals, or close calls and it looked like we were on course for a good score.

We weren’t able to convert though. Just like Brisbane, we had one big partnership and couldn’t capitalise on it. As professional players, mistakes are okay if you learn from them, but we have collapsed three times in a row now.

Without looking to make excuses, we have guys who have spent 45 minutes in the middle on the whole tour. When I went out to bat, it was for the first time in a competitive match since August.

Normally, at the start of a Test series, you’d have at least a handful of first-class games behind you, but Covid has sent us into a unique situation, and you must find a way to succeed.

Now we need hold the game as long as possible. Can we bat four sessions? Absolutely. Can we save it? Yes. We just need two or three batters to be heroic.

It would be a long way back from 2-0 down when we need to win the series to reclaim the urn. We need to get to change things quickly.

MY JAW is sore after a well-aimed bouncer from Jhye Richardson. The delivery in question took my left thumbnail off and then hit the bottom of the grille of my helmet.

Credit to the protective gear because although it’s in the bin now — as you can’t re-use helmets after being struck — it did its job brilliantly.

At the time of writing, I was due to face further concussion questions, but it is much better to be struck where I was than on the temple.

During the initial ones, on the field, Craig de Weymarn, our team physio, asked me where we were: Adelaide. Where we go next: Melbourne. And what day of the Test match we were playing: three. Although I did tell him: ‘It feels like 10!’

The Australians were brilliant. After what guys like David Warner and Steve Smith have been through over recent years, they’ve changed their style of play. If you hit someone in the head these days, your first port of call is to check they are okay. And they did just that. Previously, they were more aggressive.