The Times - UK (2021-12-21)

62 Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times

SportThe Ashes

ahead of Pope’s 21.64 from his nine

Tests, and for me Pope, 23, now looks

to be the most vulnerable in this line-

up. The promise and talent are un-

doubted, but a player can only live on

them for so long.

When making these decisions, a

captain and coach can often tell within

the confines of the dressing room when

a batsman is shot and needs to be

withdrawn from the firing line. The

look in the eyes is all revealing. Duncan

Fletcher saw that with Mark Rampra-

kash. Andy Flower did so with Ravi

Bopara, as did Trevor Bayliss with

Keaton Jennings.

That was why it was heartening to see

Rory Burns take the first ball of

England’s second innings. That at least

sent the right message. For all his

technical shortcomings, he is a fighter

and his game did at least seem to be

finding some rhythm in his second-

innings 34. Sadly, that such an innings

has probably saved him (he averages

27.89 in ten Tests this year) says much

about the predicament in which

England find themselves, a result of

years of the championship being a

lottery for batsmen as dibbly-dobblers

have cleaned up on seaming pitches.

Traditional techniques have all but

been abandoned, a process hastened by

some horrifically poor coaching at

younger levels, where white-ball

hitting and overcomplication rule

the roost.

For all the encouraging notices

served to Haseeb Hameed, he averages

only 22 since his return to Test cricket

this year. This match was especially

concerning — a horrible shot in the first

innings followed by a manifestation of

the dangers of low hands in Australia in

the second.

Crawley would certainly be a more

positive replacement, but whoever is

selected must work out their own

methods and mindsets. It is no time for

collective chats. As Labuschagne said

afterwards of his decisive first-innings

partnership of 172 with David

Warner, it was a contrast of him soaking

up the pressure and Warner putting

it back on to the bowlers (after a

circumspect start).

There is never one single way to bat.

Every match, every innings and every

ball are different. Tempos vary, as do

the choice of shots, but the best players

make the correct decisions most of the

time. England’s batsmen are simply

making too many poor decisions.

Problem lies with

batting mindset,

not the line-up

Steve James

A one-man batting line-up

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

All 25 players who have batted for England in Tests in 2021

100 300 500 700 900 1,100

Runs

1,300 1,500 1,700

Avg

J Root

1,630 runs

62.69 average

R Burns

H Hameed

Z Crawley

O Pope

J Bairstow

B Stokes

D Malan

J Buttler

D Lawrence

England’s flops this series

POPE RUNS: 48 AVERAGE: 12.00

Underestimated Starc

P

at Cummins’s fateful dinner

the night before the second

Test is destined to earn a

place in Ashes mythology;

so, perhaps, should Mitchell

Starc’s. But for his preference for

dining alfresco, we now know Starc

would have joined Cummins in

Covid-19 purdah. Instead he enjoyed

his most assured and successful Test

in two years.

The word “enjoyed” is used

advisedly. For a figure who is

sometimes slightly remote, Starc

appeared as relaxed in Adelaide as he

has in years, even communing with

his most recent Test victim and

erstwhile county team-mate Joe Root

on the outfield before yesterday’s play.

Sorry about the memes, Joe...

On a slow Adelaide surface that

stayed true throughout, Starc’s six for

80 from 43.1 overs included the key

scalps of both innings. He might have

finished the game before dinner

yesterday had Alex Carey not allowed

Jos Buttler’s early edge free passage.

He again made useful runs. He took a

catch at mid-on, was glimpsed in the

gully and made an uncharacteristically

beamish press conference appearance.

Adelaide Tests now play to Starc’s

after-hours strengths. His runaway

day-night Test record enhances his

value, as the exchequer will demand

ever more such fixtures.

The irony is that Starc was one of

the first of the world’s pace bowlers to

grumble about the pink ball, and

decried the flamingo Kookaburra

routinely in its first few years for

softening too quickly and failing to

It is often asserted that

the left-armer’s power

has waned but the

statistics say otherwise,

writes Gideon Haigh

The clamour for change is already loud
and strong. England’s batting has failed
them yet again. On only three
occasions in 14 Tests in this calendar
year have they scored more than 400.
And guess what happened in those
matches? They won, of course — also
recording a fourth victory in Sri Lanka
when they made a first-innings 344. It is
a blindingly obvious route to Test-
match success. You need runs on the
board.
England simply cannot do that at the
moment and the reliance upon Joe
Root is now bordering on the sadistic,
although Dawid Malan is trying his
best to help.
The rest of the top six are enduring
calamitous years, and that includes Ben
Stokes, who averages only 22.33 in his
six Tests this year. His place is not in
doubt, of course, but he does need to
find a better balance between defence
and attack on these Australian pitches.
And that is actually true of most of
England’s batsmen. There has
been much talk of how
the Australian batsmen have left
the ball better and much more
regularly than their English
counterparts, and that is very
true, but thinking about leaving is
a dangerous state of mind for any
batter. It should be a late reac-
tion once scoring
and other
defensive options
have been excluded.
“Look to play, then
leave,” is the mantra.
The batting coach, Trent
Woodhill, made an excellent
point recently about the ex-
travagance of the leaves
made by Steve Smith and
Marnus Labuschagne,
arguing that they
do this because
they make
their deci-
sions so late.
There might
be something
in that.
Woodhill also
said that England need to
reassess their range of scor-
ing strokes on Australian
surfaces and look to play
more horizontal-bat shots
than vertical.
This is sound counsel.
Bounce is difficult to coun-
ter with a straight blade. It is
why opening batsmen
should always be wary of
forcing off the back foot
with a straight bat early in

their innings. It is much safer to cut if

you can. Root’s back-foot punch is his

signature shot but even he has been

troubled by Cameron Green’s extra

bounce when attempting it.

When the third Test starts in

Melbourne on Boxing Day, England

must be mindful not to take too much

from Jos Buttler’s superb second

innings of self-denial and application in

Adelaide. You clearly cannot win Tests

batting like that, but what Buttler can

take from it is the solidity of his defence.

He must trust it now.

That is Ollie Pope’s problem. His fre-

netic batting against Nathan Lyon is

down to a lack of trust in his defen-

sive method, which is more old-

school, with bat alongside pad

rather than out in front of it, as is

the modern way to counter the

greater chance of leg-before deci-

sions from the Decision Review

System.

England’s batsmen need

to be clearer about their

scoring areas and make

positive decisions as a

result. If they are driv-

ing, the ball needs to

be very full, right

under their eyes, es-

pecially early in an

innings. And if the

ball is wide, it should

be driven squarer.

Buttler edged

Mitchell Starc in the

first innings trying to

hit the ball too straight.

England cannot just

make changes for changes’

sake. The replacements in

waiting have little or no cricket

behind them and their statistics

this year are just as anaemic as the

others. Zak Crawley averages 11.14

in his seven Tests in 2021 — al-

though his game is much better

suited to Australian pitches

than it is to those in

England and Asia —

Jonny Bairstow

averages

25.07 in

his eight

Tests

and Dan

Lawrence

27.23 from

his eight

Tests. Grant-

ed, Lawrence is

Stokes has not found the
correct balance between
attack and defence
on this tour so far