Sport Second Specsavers Ashes Test
England seize upper hand to shift
Such a shame. If only the weather
had been summery not autumnal
and 98 overs had been bowled on
the final day, it could have been one
of the all-time epic finishes rather
than an exciting draw. England,
however, made the most of the time
available to swarm all over Aus-
tralia: the home side are 1-0 down
but have seized the upper hand.
England go to Headingley for the
third Test starting on Thursday in
By Nick Hoult CRICKET NEWS
CORRESPONDENT at Lord’sJoe Root believes Jofra Archer has
changed the dynamic of the Ashes
series after a “frightening” Test
debut at Lord’s.
Archer bowled 44 overs, struck
Australian players 11 times and left
Steve Smith, the finest batsman of
his generation, fighting to be fit for
the second Test with a concussion
injury.
After years of England batsmen
being on the receiving end of
bouncers from Australian fast
bowlers, Root is relishing unleash-ing Archer and believes he can lift
his side to win two of the last three
Tests and regain the Ashes
“He has come in and had a mas-
sive impact and added a dynamic to
our bowling group. He has given
Australia something to think about
and it is really impressive to see
someone come in on Test debut and
shake up things and live up to the
hype. It makes for some very inter-
esting last few games,” Root said.
“He makes things happen when
not many others in the world of
cricket can.
“He has such a unique action and
way of bowling, and his natural
pace is always going to be in theScyld Berry
CRICKET JOURNALIST
OF THE YEAR
at Lord’s
IST
Australia outgunned in
dramatic Lord’s draw
Only weather prevents
series being levelled
the expectation that Australia’s
champion, Steve Smith, will sensi-
bly play it safe after being con-
cussed and miss the game. And
their only other senior batsman,
David Warner, has been the least
successful of all the top-order bats-
men in this low-scoring series,
making only 18 runs, although
Travis Head stepped up on the final
evening to see Australia through to
a draw with four wickets in hand.
Most of England’s batsmen, on
the other hand, have now switched
into red-ball mode, after an under-
standably slow start to this series,
and have found a game plan to
counteract Nathan Lyon. As a team,
England clearly sense Australia’s
vulnerability – far more so than at
Edgbaston – and fancy their
chances of regaining the Ashes, and
rightly so, because in Jofra Archer
they have been blessed with the
bowler who, allowing for the ab-
sence of reliable data through theages, deserves to be recognised as
the fastest England have ever had.
England captain Joe Root limited
Archer to 15 overs in Australia’s sec-
ond innings, not wanting to over-
play his hand and tire his new strike
bowler ahead of the Tests at Head-
ingley, Old Trafford and the Oval.
Yet in that time Archer felled
Smith’s concussion replacement,
Marnus Labuschagne, and further
strengthened the sense of forebod-
ing which must be growing among
the Australian tourists: that for all
the excellence of their own pace
bowling, which includes the No 1 in
the International Cricket Council
Test rankings, Pat Cummins, Eng-
land possess in Archer the best –
the most dangerous – bowler on
either side.
Being outgunned is a situation
which Australia’s cricketers are nei-
ther familiar with nor like. They
bowed to South Africa when Dale
Steyn was at his peak. Further back,they bowed to West Indies when
they were world champions, and
when Ian Botham huffed and
puffed and blew their house down.
No wonder the first four days of
the Headingley Test have been sold
out, to see if England can repeat
their triumph of 2005 in going from
losing the opening Test to winning
the series.
Australia have 17 players in their
squad and given the number of hel-
mets Archer has hit – partly be-
cause his trajectory off the pitch is
so steep – they might end up using
most of them in one team. The
change in the concussion rules, op-
erative since Aug 1, worked in their
favour when Labuschagne made a
fine 59 as Smith’s replacement; and
their team would have expanded to
13 players here if Labuschagne had
not bounced back from being hit
second ball.
It is not only the steepness of
Archer’s trajectory off the pitch –‘Frightening’
Archer has
debut to
remember
game on any surface. With the
other guys around him, it makes a
tasty combination, which is why we
always felt we were in the game.
“They will have to think quite
clearly how to combat how he is
going to come at them. It is differ-
ent to the other options we have
had previously in this team. On a
surface that might nibble and to
add him into a quartet is a really big
bonus for us.”
Root admitted England were
shocked to see Smith walk out to re-
sume his innings on Saturday after
his sickening blow on the neck from
Archer. “It was a horrible moment.
You are always trying to find differ-Game-changer:
Joe Root says
Jofra Archer adds
another ‘dynamic’Flying high: Joe Denly’s spectacular
catch sees the end of Tim Paine2 *** Monday 19 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws