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Australia’s first-innings capitulation at Edgbaston, where they were all out for just 136 runs and James Anderson bagged six wickets, perfectly illustrated why it’s not always ideal to bat first.
It was the visitors’ lowest innings total on English soil since 1968, an innings in which Australia crumbled for just 78 runs on a green Lord’s pitch.
The ever-reliable Chris Rogers was Australia’s only notable contributor, making his ninth 50-plus score from his last 11 innings, while the others dropped like flies.
The relentlessness with which Anderson hit the top of off-stump and swung the red leather saw faint edges to carry to Jos Buttler behind the stumps.
Now there is nothing wrong with giving credit where credit is due, but the elephant in the room is that Australian captain Michael Clarke won the toss and elected to bat on a green wicket beneath overcast skies.
Couple that with the fact that Anderson is arguably more suited to such conditions than any other paceman in world cricket, and it is hard to see why the Australian captain didn’t send the hosts in to bat.
The problem is that there seems to be an unwritten rule in cricket that nine times out of ten you bat first, and the other one time you think about bowling yet still bat. We’ll call it the ‘bat first’ myth.
As we saw in the first Test in Cardiff, batting first gave England a considerable advantage straight away. The hosts sailed to 430 in the first innings, leaving Australia well behind in the match and with a mountainous psychological barrier to overcome.
England won the match by a whopping 169 runs.
In the second Test at Lord’s, Australia had the luxury of batting first and took the opportunity with both hands, cruising to 8/566 declared and eventually trouncing the Poms by a mammoth 405 runs.
What one must realise that on both occasions, is the pitches were extraordinarily flat and offered very little in bounce and variation.
Bat-first decisions justified.
However, if there is a good chance that some serious damage can be done by electing to bowl first, then there is no reason why a captain should choose otherwise.
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh said exactly that in the lead-up to the first Test in Brisbane against South Africa in 2012:
“You bat or bowl according to the conditions, the strength of your side and the weakness of the opposition.
“If you think you should bowl first and believe you’re capable of taking 10 wickets on the first day, you go for it.”
A classic example of this was when Michael Clarke won the toss against New Zealand in Hobart in 2011 and sent the visitors in to bat on a typical, green Bellerive pitch under sour skies. James Pattinson took 5-51 as he tore through the Black Caps.
Given England’s sheer annihilation of Australia’s batting order in the first innings, there is no doubt that Clarke should have played the same cards at the toss.
However, the wider issue that needs addressing is the undeniable existence of the ‘bat first’ myth.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to haunt the baggy greens during or beyond these Ashes.
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