The Daily Telegraph - 06.08.2019

England

Player ratings

By Scyld Berry

Ben Stokes

Rory Burns Jason Roy Joe Root Joe Denly Jos Buttler

Jonny Bairstow Moeen Ali Chris Woakes Stuart Broad James Anderson

Strive though he did thereafter,

his first-innings bowling let

tourists off hook. Was his first

red-ball game since February.

Growing into role, looking more

assured after his first Test 100,

but should play within limits and

give away the square-drive.

Was settling into the tempo of

Test batting when he got himself

out. Inconsistency is inevitable,

self-destruction inexcusable.

Promising at No 3, set right tone

with disciplined shot-selection.

As captain, left short of fire-

power after Anderson’s injury.

Elegant shot-maker but too

carefree in selection to become

Test heavyweight at 33. Leg-spin

caters for white-ball purposes.

His first red-ball game since

February – and it showed. Has

to be in prime form to justify his

place as a specialist batsman.

Missed stumping but otherwise

efficient in keeping. Has been

disorientated with bat since

being moved around the order.

So hard for anyone to find form

when only playing international

cricket but still underperformed

with bat and, especially, the ball.

Batted as nicely as any England

right-hander, but could not tip

the balance with his bowling as

the ball only swung when new.

Did his job in leading attack with

cross-seamers and leg-cutters,

but could not compensate for

Anderson’s absence as well.

What a shame he broke down in

his fourth over, leaving England

with 10 men. Not going to match

Sir Alastair Cook’s farewell.

7

8 4 7 3 2

5 3 7 7 1

and

R Burns

J Roy

J Root

J Denly

J Buttler

B Stokes

J Bairstow

M Ali

C Woakes

S Broad

J Anderson

12

37

57

16

25

28

8

28

54

1

9

Second innings How

many balls they lasted

Sport First Specsavers Ashes Test

J

ason Roy is the latest in a

long list of openers since

Andrew Strauss and if

England do not move him

down the order he will go

the same way as the rest

and be dropped. In the second

innings he played a brainless shot.

He defended well, then suddenly

jumped down the pitch to drive

through the off side against the ball

turning back at him and was

bowled through the gate. I don’t

think he has the mindset to defend

and stay in over a long period.

It did not help England’s batting

cause when Graham Thorpe, the

batting coach, said “play your

normal game” because the normal

game for Roy is to hit it, whack it

and smack it. Thorpe is telling

them to be positive, look to score

runs. It is madness. In this situation

of trying to save the match a quick

fifty is not as good as staying in for

three hours.

I have seen enough of Roy as an

opener to know that he has to bat

down the order or not at all. That is

where his stroke play has a chance

of flourishing.

Having Australia 122 for eight on

the first day and being beaten so

badly is a huge kick in the teeth

and England have some serious

thinking to do before the next Test.

Jonny Bairstow gives me the

impression he is trying to score off

every ball and when he plays the

odd defensive shot he puts more

pressure on himself to hit the next

ball, whatever the line or length. In

Test cricket that is a recipe for

getting out and that is what he has

been doing.

There have been too many

failures. Since his 110 in Colombo

batting at No 3 last November he

has played five Tests, nine innings

and scored 125 and been out nine

times. That is not good enough. He

needs to reassess the way he bats in

Test matches and have a frank and

honest appraisal about how he is

getting out.

Why is he attempting such weird

strokes? Is he still in one-day

mode, crashing every white ball to

the boundary?

If he does not start to curb this

indiscipline then his stellar batting

in the World Cup will not save him

from losing his Test place. He will

get the sack.

In sport we are judged on results

and because of his excellent past

batting performances in Test

cricket he will be given some

leeway and an extended time to get

his run-scoring back on track but

eventually, if he does not do it, the

captain and selectors will move on

to someone else. His big threat

comes from Ben Foakes.

Joe Denly looked good in the

first innings with excellent

footwork, good defence and

superb cover drives but then he

missed a straight one. My first

impression was: is he going to

flatter and let us down like James

Vince or is there something more

to come?

He is starting a Test career at 33.

He is not a youngster. We do not

want a pretty failure. When he gets

a start he must go on to score runs.

There was no shame in him getting

Gone too soon: England’s Jason Roy is bowled out by Australia’s Nathan Lyon after being advised to play positively

out in the second innings against

the turning ball. When you first go

in and there is a lot of spin I don’t

care how good you are, it is very,

very difficult. It takes every bit of

skill you can muster just to survive.

It feels like the bowler is bowling

hand grenades.

If you can make a start, make 20

runs, you will get used to the

amount of spin and then it

becomes much easier. These slow,

turning pitches give you a lot of

time to adjust, stay back a lot, let

the ball come to you. When you

can relax it becomes a totally

different game.

All that said, it was picking

Jimmy Anderson and him going

down injured after four overs that

probably lost England the Test.

Why? Because England had

Australia 122 for eight in their first

innings despite being a bowler

short. That extra bowler may well

have made the difference in

polishing off the tail cheaply and

would have spread the workload

among our seamers during the

long Australia second innings.

Anderson had plenty of net

bowling but so many of us ex-

players will tell you nets are no

substitute for bowling in a match.

I understand Jimmy’s desire to

play at the start of an Ashes series. I

understand how important he is as

the leader of England’s bowling

unit with 575 Test wickets.

I get it that he would like to

achieve the magical figure of 600

wickets but didn’t anyone think of

the consequences if he broke down

and left the team a major seamer

short? Obviously not.

Years ago when I played, he

would have had to prove his match

fitness before being selected. He

has had a calf muscle injury and

not bowled in a match for nearly

four weeks.

Last week we were told that he

was fit to play at Lord’s against

Ireland, so why didn’t they pick

him to play in that match, when he

would not have been extended too

much but been able to prove his

match fitness?

Every player, but particularly

every bowler, needs to start a

match fit because injuries can

occur during a Test. When that

happens it is just bad luck. But to

gamble that Jimmy would be all

right on the day was stupid. It was

an unnecessary risk that was a

huge early blow because cricket

only allows substitutes for

concussion injuries.

It needed the selectors, coach

and captain to make a decision

with their heads and not their

hearts. They could not do that.

Opener needs to drop

to No 4 but it was stupid

gamble on Anderson

that really hurt England

Roy cannot defend so move him down order

Having Australia

122 for eight on day

one and then losing

so badly is a huge

kick in the teeth

ACTION IMAGES

GEOFFREY

BOYCOTT

4 *** Tuesday 6 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph