“They were completely ill-prepared, and I have a lot of sympathy for them in this regard”; Mike Atherton reflects on England’s total defeat at The Gabba, the disappointment of their collapse on the fourth day, and why he understands leaving James Anderson and Stuart Broad out.
Mike Atherton explains why he has sympathy for a “ completely under-prepared ” England team, why he had no problem with James Anderson and Stuart Broad being left out, and which player from Australia caught his eye when reviewing the first test of Ashes …
It was a disappointing morning after the optimism of the partnership between Joe Root and Dawid Malan the day before, they both played absolutely wonderfully.
There was a problem with Josh Hazlewood, who we understand was not 100% fit, David Warner was off the field with pain in his ribs so a path to England could be seen that would put Australia under some pressure if they reached that second new. ball and fired him.
But it wasn’t like that, it was a very bad morning, they lost eight wickets in a slightly extended session. Those first overs, losing three before the second new ball was really the killer.
Of course Root would have wanted a hundred, he knows he has never had one in Australia and more importantly he would have wanted one because that was the only way England could win the game. He played really well the day before, he played in the same kind of way that he showed all summer long, so it was a very promising sign. But you can’t do it alone!
If you look at England in the last dozen or so tests, they have become so dependent on Root and obviously if England is doing well here in Australia you would think they will have to have a very productive series, but they also need others. people around you support you. Malan hit well yesterday, but England’s hitting in both innings, other than that one partnership, was poor and that’s going to cost them.
They were completely ill-prepared and I have a lot of sympathy for them in this regard. There’s the Covid pandemic, which has required the kind of schedule they had, but then torrential rains in Queensland simply nullified the minimal preparation they had been or had given themselves.
It’s a combination of bad luck and circumstance, but the result was that they came into this game totally ill-prepared. I cannot think that I have seen an England team less prepared in that regard; Jimmy Anderson said it in his newspaper column, he has never been so badly prepared for a series, which is why he did not make that 12-man team.
But you’re looking at players like Anderson and Broad, who haven’t played for a long time, Ben Stokes, who hasn’t played since July and hasn’t played in a test game since March, and hitters who have had minimal time in the game. medium. because of the rain. I have a lot of sympathy in that regard, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are 1-0 down.
I’m a bit of a minority, but I think leaving Broad and Anderson out is perfectly fair. I know that Root has a lot of criticism for that; people cannot understand why they would leave 1000 windows in the bank. But I think under all normal circumstances, one of the two, if not both, would have played.
England just haven’t had a chance to bring these guys up to speed; Broad tore his calf so badly over the summer that he spent weeks in a wheelchair unable to put any weight on his foot and hasn’t played since August.
Anderson is 39 and has also not played for two or three months, and I understand that he may have started the tour with a little complaint, so he was a bit behind on prep time as well. So again, I felt a lot of sympathy for the decision to leave those two out.
Just go back to when Anderson played in that Test Match at Edgbaston in 2019 against Australia, on the back of a no-match practice, and broke his calf after four overs. He was out of the game and out of the series. If that had happened here, Joe Root would have been eviscerated for it.
I think the precaution of leaving those two on the sidelines was completely understandable and indeed Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood all played quite well and created chances. That was not where the game was lost.
The game was lost for lack of preparation, lack of depth in the bowls because Jack Leach was attacked and Stokes was struggling a bit, and the hitting underperformed in both the first and second innings.
The launch, I think, is more debatable. There’s no question that there was enough movement on the first day to justify bowling first, definitely. But it wasn’t a total throw of 147. It was the kind of pitch where you would expect to go over 260 or 270 and stay competitive in the game.
If they had another 100 runs, and given where they were last night, again maybe you can see a way to late-bowling advantage. You can certainly decide that it could have done something different at launch, but it wasn’t a total launch of 147, that’s for sure.
As for Australia, Nathan Lyon got his 400th testing ground after playing quite well on the third day without any rewards. He’s obviously had that long wait for the 400, which is a remarkable effort for a finger in Australia.
Everybody says this is the country to turn your wrists, not your fingers, and he’s now third in Australia behind Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. He’s right up there with the greats, I think he’s only the seventh spinner to hit that mark in test cricket.
A fantastic achievement for him, since he doesn’t have some of the tricks that other players on that list had, I’m thinking of Murali and Harbhajan, Ravi Ashwin; they all have a bit of mystery and a few tricks. his sleeve. Nathan Lyon is a fairly regular spinner, albeit a very good one, doing strong turns and dribbling, drifting and bouncing.
Well done for him, but the guys who really caught my eye was Cameron Green, who brought Root out this morning and made a huge impact there. He only took a couple of wickets and didn’t get any races, but as an off-roader and fifth pitcher, I think this is a great find for Australia.
He will lighten the load of those big three rapids. He threw at a lively pace, bounced, threw a beauty to get Root today and I know he got nothing but he can obviously play. He looks like a serious cricketer.
Travis Head was the man of the match of his century, but the key partnership for Australia was Warner and Marnus Labuschagne, that really set him up because it meant that when Head came in England had a bit of pain in his foot and a bit of exhaustion, the ball was old.