Ashes 2017/18: 1st Test, Day 1 - A Reality Check for Both Sides

The call was for Australia to blow England away with explosive pace.

The threat was to play on the terror of the batsmen and to end careers.

The reality was that none of the Australian bowlers threatened 90 mph and a slow pitch largely neutralised them.

For large parts of the day the bat dominated the ball and the biggest threat by far was from the spin of Nathan Lyon. If anyone had told Joe Root that the biggest danger on the first day of the Gabba Test would be an off-spinner getting prodigious turn, he would have laughed in your face. This does not look like a normal Gabba Test or a normal Gabba pitch.

And if anyone had told you that Australia’s biggest nightmare on the day would be James Vince batting and batting and batting until Australia must have despaired of removing what they had identified as the weakest link in the England batting, you would have been deemed almost certifiable. Only a brilliant piece of fielding could shift James Vince when a century was his for the taking.

After from Vince learning to count past 42, the great news was Mark Stoneman making a solid, unruffled 50 and Dawid Malan batting calmly to the Close. All three debutants. All three controversial picks, have repaid the faith of the selectors.

The bad news:

Another failure for Alistair Cook. Scores of 0, 15, 32, 70 and 2 have got Australia interested. He looks vulnerable. Again. We have written off Alistair Cook so many times, particularly after the 2006/07 Ashes, the 2013 Ashes and the 2013/14 Ashes and he has come back but, apart from that 2010/11 series in Australia, his Ashes record is notably poor. Has he still got the will to make big runs?

England lost the initiative in the evening. At 127-1, you could dream of maybe 240-2 at the Close. However, 127-1 became 163-4 and the gloss had gone off the day. It was a mini-collapse and Australia must have felt that one more wicket and England might fold for around 200. It did not happen because Malan and Moeen Ali dug in, although the massive slog for 6 off the previously miserly Nathan Lyon suggested that Moeen does not quite get this concept of “dig in”. In fact, after Root fell, a brief but violent counter-attack even forced Cummins out of the attack as successive overs from Cummins and Lyon went for 4, 8 & 8.

The fact remains though that with the new ball just 3 balls old and an early start on the ‘morrow, the Australians are announcing loudly that they hope to dismiss England for 260 and be batting well before Lunch: England fans will fear the return of the good old Calypso Collapso, already present on this tour; the Australians still think that one good kick and the edifice of England’s batting will collapse. The reasoning is that if Pat Cummins can get a head of steam with the new ball and get rid of any two of Malan, Moeen and Bairstow, England’s last four will not fancy inconveniencing him. Two wickets in the first three or four overs and England may not reach 250.

However, the more buoyant of England fans have looked at the close of play score and noticed that it is almost identical to the score early on the second morning in the Brisbane Test of 1986/87. England were 198-4 and had just lost two quick wickets before one Ian Terrance Botham teamed up with Philip de Freitas and the score rocketed past 400. Australia were dismissed cheaply twice and England won comfortably.

Could it happen again? Australia’s record of success of Brisbane is so long that you know that it has to end sometime, probably sooner rather than later. However, before England start putting the champagne on ice they need to see off the new ball in the morning and start to accelerate.

There is a window of opportunity here. In 2013/14 Australia were so hostile and the tail so defenceless because Mitch Johnson rarely had a heavy load: he averaged fewer than 18 overs per innings through the series and the batsmen made big scores to give him plenty of rest. Already Pat Cummins has bowled 19 overs, Mitch Starc is in his 20^th and Josh Hazlewood has bowled 18. Will Pat Cummins be able to retain his pace of he has to bowl 30 overs? Can Steve Smith risk him or Mitch Starc, both injury prone (in Cummins’s case, more injury plagued), breaking down? There is not much that can be offered as a plausible fifth bowler to rest the pace trio, or to buy a breakthrough were Australia to get stuck.

If Dawid Malan and Moeen Ali can bat for an hour the spearhead will be broken and runs will start to come more quickly. Bring in Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes against tired bowlers and maybe, just maybe, sights can be set on 350, 380, or even 400. That is the prize if these two not out batsmen can both push their innings deep into the morning session.

England fans can only hope.

England’s players will want to show that they are no pushover and make a point about the vacuity of some of the pre-match chat, using it as motivation.

Bat well, bat long tomorrow and the always fragile Australian morale will start to take a beating.

Collapse and there will be no way back.