Nasser Hussain impressed by England’s attack on The Gabba despite Australia dominating the second day of Ashes’ opener; Former England captain says Australia was “smart” and discusses how an injury to Ben Stokes would be a “nightmare” for Joe Root’s tourists
It was another difficult day for England in the first Ash Test, as Australia closed with a 196 lead. Nasser Hussain praises the attack from the tourists and the smart approach of the home team, while also talking about team selection and the Ben Stokes concern about injuries.
The scorecard doesn’t really reflect what day two was like at The Gabba as I thought England, especially in that first session, played very well. I can’t blame the top three seamers, in particular.
Ollie Robinson was quite brilliant with the new ball on his first test in Australia and I was also impressed with Mark Wood around David Warner’s wicket with his pace.
Chris Woakes was good too, although if you were being hypercritical he could have been a bit more thorough.
That’s where it has struggled a bit in Australia – throw that natural one-length rear end and you should be a little fuller.
All three of them held up very well at their job, but Australia was very, very smart.
He did a lot in that first session and David Warner, who scored 94, and Marnus Labuschagne, who scored 74, decided that getting 20 runs from those rowers who shot so well would be 10 overs.
Labuschagne gave a masterclass on how to get the ball long – England number 3 Dawid Malan needs to look at that while playing a ball the first day that it bounced well over the stumps.
Labuschagne let the bowlers get to him, knowing that England would have to turn to their spinner eventually, knowing that Joe Root’s attack was ill-prepared, knowing they would tire towards the end of the day in one last long session. Australia knew they could profit and they did.
The moment Jack Leach appeared, he was devastated. Australia kept crushing it, Root had to go back to the seamers, and by the end of the day, they were absolutely cooked.
Travis Head fought back when England were working to get back into the game and then struggled late in the day to build on their advantage.
But he did it in a controlled way. It was not an effort or a slip. He hit correctly, but still hit 51 after 51 balls and then hit his 85 hundred. It was controlled aggression and the evaluation of the opposition.
Labuschagne and Head have been playing cricket under these conditions, in the Sheffield Shield, and England have not, but I don’t know what England could have done about it.
They couldn’t have the preparation Sir Andrew Strauss’s team had in 2010/11 with warm-up game after warm-up game, with bowlers getting into their legs and batters getting used to the rebound in order to come out at length.
The signs were there before a ball was thrown.
I feel sorry for Leach as they ask him to bowl at The Gabba when he hasn’t played for England in about 10 months. I don’t think it was a bad shot. Sometimes towards the end it was a little negative with Head down the leg side with a leg side field, but that was on command.
The England team’s selection, leaving out Stuart Broad and James Anderson, is being questioned, with some saying one of them could have played in Leach’s place.
However, if you leave Leach out and then the second time around, having had some great runs in the first inning, he starts spinning, everyone will say ‘where’s your balanced attack?’ Any roulette wheel will tell you that not everything is where you want to start.
Like I said yesterday, I would have played a Broad or Anderson one. Not just thinking about this game, but also thinking that they weren’t both going to participate in the second day and night event in Adelaide without having bowled in a long time, so who are you leaving out?
Woakes is a very good cricketer who also gives you runs in order, Robinson has to play, for me, although the only thing with him is that he gets tired towards the end of the day. You want the point of difference from Wood’s pace and need a turn option in Australia
But when you’ve got all that experience, all those proving grounds, and Broad’s record against Warner, you might go with Broad, even if it’s just because of Warner, who he dominated on the Ashes at home in 2019.
Warner was always going to be a threat. If he plays well, Australia’s batting lineup fits in quite well after him, as we saw.
But it’s not the bowling attack that is why England are in this position: 147 in the first inning is, and that has been their nemesis for some time. Considerable runs from the first inning.
