Yet Another "Worst Day Of The Tour So Far"

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Yet another low

 

December 15^th 2013

 

 

“For once this series, England have a chance to set the agenda on the third morning, rather than simply try to delay the inevitable.”

So much for yesterday’s optimism! It took six overs to lose both overnight batsmen for the addition of just eighteen runs and expose the tail to the new ball. All England’s plans depended on getting through to lunch (30 overs) with no more than five wickets down but, by the time that the new ball was taken, twelve overs into the day, England were 221-7 and Bresnan and Broad were left to save what they could from the wreckage: eight balls after the new ball was taken, 229-8. That only Cook and Carberry scored more in the innings than the 21 from Tim Bresnan and the 19 from Graeme Swann gives an idea of the scale of the failure.

England are playing an all-rounder at six who should be batting at eight. The new opener, who many have mocked as not being good enough for Tests is the highest run-scorer for England in the series (157 runs at 31.4) and only Joe Root has so far past 72 in the series; for Australia, Clarke and Haddin have passed 300 runs and David Warner is closing in on 500 . The batting is proving to be horribly inadequate – Australia have scored almost as many centuries (6) as England have managed 50s (7). Australia have three bowlers with ten or more wickets who are averaging under 20, England have one bowler with ten or more wickets and no one averaging under 25. Although Brad Haddin has just one more dismissal than Matt Prior (11 against 10), Haddin has a century and two fifties so far in the series, while 69 of Matt Prior’s 81 runs have come in a single innings.

There was already a case for playing Bairstow for Prior in this Test. If, as seems certain, the Ashes are lost at the end of this match, that case will surely become unarguable.

Things though, have got worse. It looks possible that the Mitch Johnson yorker than dismissed Stuart Broad has broken a bone in his foot. Broad is on crutches. The x-ray has shown something, but it will be analysed in the UK (!!) [does no one trust Australian doctors??] If it is a break, it means that England’s one penetrative bowler will miss the rest of the series. Even if it is not a break, his participation in the 4^th Test must be in doubt.

If Stuart Broad goes home, someone will undoubtedly be called up. There will be plenty of calls for that to be Graeme Onions, although, with re-building needed, the temptation must be to go for one of the players in the EPP squad – possibly the fast-rising Chris Jordan, on the grounds that Tymal Mills is just not ready yet to be thrown into the deepest of deep ends.

Serious questions though will have to be asked: why is it that England have picked three tall, fast bowlers, none of whom are selectable? Why has Steve Finn gone backwards so badly in the last eighteen months? Why is there such a dearth of obvious alternatives? Why are the batsmen struggling so badly? Cook, KP, Prior and Root are not suddenly bad batsmen – is it exhaustion from the non-stop grind of cricket (this is England’s fourth Test series of the year)? Or is it something that has been allowed to slip in the set-up, allowing attitudes to become casual?