ASHES: Talking points from Melbourne day one

Was Michael Clarke wrong to bowl first? Is Joe Root out of his depth at Test level? Where has Peter Siddle’s pace gone?

The first day of the Boxing Day Test posed these questions as England squandered great batting conditions to finish the day at 6 for 226.

Where has Peter Siddle’s pace gone?
Two years ago in the Boxing Day Test, Peter Siddle denied Sachin Tendulkar the chance to make his 100th international century, bowling him for 73.

The delivery which scythed through Tendulkar’s defences was clocked at a blistering 146kmh.

Throughout that 2011-12 summer, Siddle bowled with extreme pace and exceeded 150kmh several times.

Where has this searing speed gone?

In this series and the previous Ashes in England, Siddle has very rarely pushed the speed gun beyond 140kmh.

His average speed has been about 135kmh – close to 10kmh down on what he was serving up only two years ago.

Is he bowling within himself? I’m not so sure.

If that was the case wouldn’t he unleash occasional 145kmh-plus deliveries as a shock weapon?

At only 29 years of age it is unusual that he has shed 10kmh in pace.

Quicks will often lose their bite at a certain age but that typically does not occur until they are 31 or 32.

Mitchell Johnson, for example, is three years older than Siddle yet he is bowling as quick, if not quicker, than at any time in his career.

Certainly I have never witnessed Johnson bowl faster than the 155kmh missile he fired at Joe Root today.

In any case, Siddle is proving that his underrated guile and accuracy are just as effective as his previous rapidity.

His canny use of the crease and subtle changes of seam position have made him the best first-change paceman in Test cricket.

Was Michael Clarke wrong to bowl first?
The last time a Test skipper won the toss and opted to bowl at the MCG on Boxing Day, Australia were skittled for 98 by England.

That first-day carnage in 2010 must have been on Australian captain Michael Clarke’s mind before the toss today.

He was also no doubt hoping for a repeat of his side’s demolition of the Sri Lankan batting line-up last Boxing Day, when they rolled the tourists for 156.

It was, however, a risky move by Clarke given the overwhelming success Australia had experienced batting first this series.

No doubt seduced by the humid overhead conditions, he would have been hopeful the ball would seam and swing prodigiously for his pacemen.

It was not to be. When off spinner Nathan Lyon was introduced just nine overs into the day’s play it confirmed Clarke had made a blunder.

The pitch offered far more assistance to the tweaker than quicks Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle.

Fortuitously, it was not a fatal error from Clarke as England’s batsmen once again failed to capitalise on good conditions for batting.

It could have been much worse for England had Australia not dropped three catches.

Is Joe Root out of his depth in Test cricket?
Joe Root may well become a terrific Test batsman one day. But the 22-year-old is out of his depth.

England’s strange decision to promote him to first drop ahead of their best batsman Ian Bell has backfired.

It has left the side with a top three who lack intent and are far too easily shackled.

David Warner is often lambasted for being cavalier early in his innings.

But, like Virender Sehwag did for India, he regularly provides his team with invaluable impetus and forces the opposition captain to adapt a more defensive approach.

Root’s soporific batsmanship has the opposite effect.

Whenever he comes to the crease, any momentum England have built up swiftly dissipates.

The young Yorkshireman’s priorities appear to be thus: 1. Survival 2. Survival 3. Score runs.

As a result the bowlers feel in control and their skipper can place attacking fields.

Today Root scratched around at the crease like an old chook as he dawdled to 24 from 82 balls.

By the time he surrendered his wicket to Ryan Harris, England had been batted into a hole.

Since making a hundred in the second Test of the last Ashes at Lords in July, Root has made 295 runs at an average of 27.

His lack of runs is almost less of a concern that his astonishingly poor strike rate of 31 during those seven Tests.

A strike rate of less than 40 in modern-day Test cricket is very poor. But a rate of 31 is utterly unacceptable.

Root’s reliance on scoring behind square off the back foot means it is an elementary task for any intelligent bowler to asphyxiate him.

As well as handing the ascendancy to the bowlers and the opposition captain, his negativity also ratchets up the pressure on his batting partner.

Unless Root can display far greater freedom in his strokeplay over his last three innings in this series, he should be dropped.

Bell must bite the bullet and move to number three.

He is the one England player, aside from the out-of-touch Pietersen, who looks capable of taking the attack to the quicks early in the team’s innings.

Alastair Cook, like Root, is very much an accumulator of runs rather than a strokemaker.

Fellow opener Michael Carberry also has a tendency to become bogged down and has managed a strike rate of only 43 in his brief Test career.

The other strong sides in Test cricket have at least one batsman in their top three capable of putting the opposition on the back foot from the start of their innings.

South Africa have skipper Graeme Smith, India have Shikhar Dhawan, and Australia have Warner.

Andrew Strauss revealed on Sky UK’s coverage of the match today that England’s run rate in Tests this year is the lowest it has been for 13 years.

England had scored at just 2.86 runs per over this year, Strauss reported, compared to impressive rates of 3.56rpo in 2009, 3.42rpo in 2010 and 3.81rpo in 2011.

The Poms’ bat-to-bore approach has been brutally exposed.