Threads come loose for Bazball as England's horror run in Australia reaches the number 17
ICC World Test Championship
15 years. 17 matches. Time passed since England's last win in Australia. Another shambolic performance in Brisbane means Australia is now leading 2-0 in the series. Mind you, Australia were missing Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon in this game. That's a total of 287 matches and 1166 wickets absent from the Aussie attack. Their batting order has not been in a strong form for more than a year now. It couldn't have been easier than this for England to finally find that elusive win in an away Ashes. Joe Root also managed to break his century drought in Australia on the first day at The Gabba. England scored 334 in the first innings and still became the first team to lose a day-night Test after scoring more than 300 batting first.
Poor bowling puts Australia in driver's seat
It all started with that dreadful 20-25 over spell for England bowlers at the start of the second innings. I cannot remember the last time a team bowled so poorly with the new ball. There was no plan, they were just banging the pink-ball on the surface. The pitch maps were horrible to look at and except for Jofra Archer's first five overs, all other bowlers looked as if they were forced to bowl after immediately after waking up. Australian batters added to the mayhem as they capitalized beautifully and went on a boundary-scoring spree. Opener Jake Weatherald who did not have the best of debuts in Perth seized the opportunity to establish himself in the side with a 78-ball 72 score along with 12 boundaries and a six. They took special liking to Brydon Carse taking him for a whopping 45 runs off his first 5 overs. Carse was England's highest wicket taker in the first innings and at the same time was their worst bowler as he went for more than 5 an over.
There was a bright spark in the night session when England took 3 wickets but all of it was nipped in the bud next morning by Mitchell Starc's 77. Starc added 75 runs with Scott Boland for the ninth-wicket, batting for more than 27 overs against what is England's first-choice attack for this tour. Australia took a massive lead of 177 runs against a bowling attack which looked unprepared and undercooked to be honest. Let me highlight that England decided not to play in the 2-Day pink ball fixture Prime Minister's XI even tough there was a gap of more than 12 days between the end of Perth Test and the start of this Test.
English batting shows little conviction in the second innings
What followed in the second innings was standard Aussie domination and a lack of belief from the English side. There was a moment to savor for the visitors in the first session of Day 4 when Captain Stokes and Will Jacks played out the whole session without losing a wicket, first such session of this series so far but some sensational stuff from the Aussie skipper Steve Smith in the slips ended the partnership and as well as the resistance. A target of 69 was completed easily as Smith finished the match fittingly with a six. Steven Smith completed an excellent match captaining his side to a second consecutive win in absence of the regular leader Pat Cummins and taking 5 catches to equal Rahul Dravid as the second-highest catcher in Test cricket with 210 catches. He also contributed with a score of 61 in the first innings and his record as a stand-in captain now reads: P11 W8 D3.
Carey's masterclass with the gloves and Neser's unerring accuracy with the ball
Michael Neser replaced Nathan Lyon on his home ground for this Test and his knowledge of the conditions came to fruition in the second innings with a maiden fifer. The 35 year-old was playing only his third match for his national team thanks to injuries faced by their regular seamers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. When you back a proven domestic talent, you are bound to get results. Neser might have taken only 1 wicket in the first innings but he was accurate with his line and length. He got the reward for persisting with the same in the second innings forcing England captain to go on the defensive and then removing both Will Jacks and Ben Stokes thanks to some excellent catching. Neser himself took a couple of caught-and-bowled early in the innings and his ground fielding was excellent.
Alex Carey celebrates after taking the catch of Ben Stokes in the second innings
Australia were excellent in the field throughout the game. Wicket-keeper Alex Carey put on one of best displays behind the wicket seen in the last few years. Standing upto the stumps against the likes of Boland and Neser, Carey managed to grab a few bouncers well above his head. He has earned praise from all past experts and rightly so with some calling him the best wicket-keeper in the whole world currently. Michael Neser mentioned they didn't even had to ask Alex Carey to come closer to the stumps, he was so well-prepared. The work put in by Alex Carey should act as a blueprint for all aspiring wicket-keepers given it's uniqueness of standing up against pace bowling.
Starc puts a brilliant all-round POTM performance
Mitchell Starc is undoubtedly the star with the pink-ball. He averages roughly 17 with the ball and 27 with bat. Some records from his last three Test matches include:
- He has now taken a 6-wicket haul in three consecutive matches.
- Starc has now won the Player of the Match in last three Tests, second Australian to do so after Mike Hussey.
- Mitchell Starc took a wicket in the first over of the innings in four consecutive innings, the second bowler to do so after Dhammika Prasad in 2015.
- Standing on 420 Test wickets at the completion of this Test, he is now the highest wicket-taker in Tests among left-arm pacers and only Rangana Herath (433 wickets), stands ahead of him among left-arm bowlers.
- Mitchell Starc's 77 in the first innings is the second highest score from No.8 or lower after Yasir Shah's 113 at Adelaide in 2019.
With 18 wickets in the first two Test matches already and now a 77 with the bat he is now set to replicate Mitchell Johnson's terrorizing Ashes from 2013-14 given he continues at the same intensity in the next three matches as well. His impact in this series will have ripple effect as the English batting line-up might see a few changed faces after this series something similar to what happened in 2013-14 when Jonathan Trott left the tour citing mental health issues and Kevin Pietersen also playing his last International game in the last Test of that Ashes series.
Enough Bazball!! English cricket needs a revival
England needs to finally acknowledge that their Bazball arrogance has now gone a bit too far. Brendon McCullum's claims of his side being over-prepared for this particular match are pure delusion. That England were not prepared for this tour before it started was never in doubt. They drew 2-2 against an inexperienced Indian side at home and on top of that they denied a Warm-up game before the start of this series. Ben Stokes did admit in the Post-match interview that his team has a mental block in this format to stand-up and seize the advantage against other teams. Stokes also said that this is not a "skill" issue but on display it's clearly a huge difference in the cricketing talent between the two nations.
England has won 25 and lost 16 matches under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes
The English batters have shown no desire to play time in tricky conditions. Even when the team is on top, exceedingly poor shots and zero learning from previous mistakes has ensured there is no improvement in their temperament. Bazball was glamourous when it arrived but it was in no terms, unique. Many players have single-handedly turned games by playing with high Strike Rates in the past but that mentality was never applied on the whole team which meant there were always other batters prepared to not give easy wickets to their opponents. This team does not have anyone doing that role with even Joe Root getting out to some questionable shots in the past.
England has now hosted both Australia and India with both the series ending 2-2. They traveled to India losing 4-1 and looks primed for an even worse result on this tour. With players like Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope averaging below mid-thirties after playing 60+ games, one cannot build a dominating red-ball side. It's high time the ECB recognizes that and introduces a new pathway for a better game plan. The McCullum-Stokes era has now been together for three and a half years and if you cannot produce winning results either at home or away against tough opponents then someone needs to step-in and carry out a proper assessment for the betterment of nation's cricketing team.
Given impending return of captain Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon for the third Test, things are not going to get easier for England. Mark Wood has been ruled out of series and so has been Josh Hazlewood. Australia is the only team with a 100% winning record in this World Test Championship so far and a win in Adelaide means they will continue to retain the Ashes since 2017-18.
References: Statsguru by ESPNCricinfo
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