While England dissect their loss in the first Ashes Test, the spotlight may fall on skipper Joe Root, who was tactically outdone on several occasions in Birmingham.
At key junctures, Root didn’t just give the Aussies a lifeline – he threw them a rope long enough to grab with both hands, and was pulled into the water at the same time.
On Day 1, England had their foot on the throats of the Aussies at 8/122 before Steve Smith played one of the finest innings in years.
Few could criticise Root for failing to prevent Smith’s other-worldly impact. But if he had his time again, he may have done things differently. As a captain, all you can do is place your side in the best position – principally with bowling changes and field placements – to take a wicket. On this, Root feel short.
Smith was allowed to flourish with exceedingly defensive fields the moment Peter Siddle joined him at the crease. Siddle’s wicket became England’s sole focus, as if he was a lower-order bunny.
But the Victorian didn’t hop around, and never has. His average in excess of 32 this county season with Essex was surely testament to this.
Smith’s twin partnerships with Siddle and Nathan Lyon would not only see Australia to a respectable 284, but would also come at a more-than-healthy 4.4 an over. The runs flowed far too easily, and Root struggled for the plug.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
If the first innings was a misjudgment, then the second innings was a calamity.
Australia were four wickets down at one stage, just 115 runs ahead. While Smith’s continued presence meant the tourists were in the box seat, the Test was still very much in the balance.
Enter Matthew Wade, who had failed initially in his long-awaited Test return. There was always a question whether Wade could replicate his compelling domestic form at the highest level.
Every career and life decision he had made in the prior 18 months had been leading up to this moment. The pressure was on.
But instead of building that pressure, Wade was gifted two half-volleys from part-timer Joe Denly outside off, crunched through a vacant cover region for four. He did this twice.
After seven balls, Wade was already into double-figures. Shoulders back, nerves subsided, he was recklessly afforded the comfort of easing into an innings. And a very important innings at that.
Perhaps even more baffling, the man who dismissed Wade in the first innings was nowhere to be seen. Root decided against throwing the ball – both old and new – to Chris Woakes for the entire first session of Day 4.
Journalists scurried to ask support staff what injury had overcome the Brummy Botham. But they were told that nothing was wrong at all. It was simply a tactical move.
In the weeks leading up to the first Test, Woakes had destroyed both Australia and Ireland with the new ball.
But at Edgbaston, Root kept it from him and decided to bowl himself. This wasn’t a selfish move – Root is a selfless player and leader – but rather severely ill-judged.
He and Denly would go on to bowl 26 wicketless overs, at a combined rate of 4.7 runs an over in the second innings. Just an hour after lunch, the Test match had become un-losable for Australia. England had let Australia off the hook.
And while their bowlers must take some responsibility for Australia’s incredibly swift run rate of 4.34 in the second innings, so too must Root.
Captains are bound to make errors in the field – several times, in fact – over five days of cricket. Root isn’t a poor captain, but he isn’t a necessarily astute one either.
With the bat, they could hardly have a better leader, something former opener Nick Compton believes he should focus on solely.
“I was never an advocate of him becoming captain because he’s such an exceptional batsman, he’s England’s best player,” Compton told Love Sport Radio this week. “In one way you want him to focus on that. Focus on becoming the best player in England, scoring runs time and time again.”
If Australia are to ram home their advantage at Lord’s next week, the pressure the English press placed on Tim Paine pre-series may quickly shift to their own leader.
Spanner
Roar Rookie
Agree Oz - a massive sigh of relief from my lounge room accompanied Wade's second boundary - "yess, we've got em !"
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
No doubt he bowled well but taking two of the seven top order wickets is hardly the same thing as destruction.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I think it’s pretty standard (amongst aggressive captaincy advocates) to leave a gap to encourage risky shots in that direction. Warney talks that strategy often. The two shots by Wade were top drawer, risky, and showed real intent.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I hate pointing this out but in adverse conditions in SA a year or so back our brains trust didn’t choose the wrong bowlers, they went for sandpaper.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Woakes looked a net bowler in Australia last series (except the night test) and similar story with Anderson. It’s why I’ve always been reluctant to laud Jimmy like my English pals. McGrath didn’t have anywhere he was no threat.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
When Wade came in Denley looked the most dangerous bowling option. He was spinning the ball huge from the footmarks outside rhe left handers’ off stump. The two cover drives Wade played were very high quality shots and showed him to be intent on aggression and in good form. I don’t understand why Woakes was ignored but I don’t question keeping Denley on for an over or two more
Saurebh Gandle
Roar Guru
Common sense is not so common. It's modern day tactic to go after lower order than batsman who just got his eye in. India did same during England tour in 2018. The part time bowling option to Wade I agree but Eng were a bowler short and given bowlers workload management, I would forgive Root for error he made when Wade came in. Mind you, Root is still young and learning.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
You think it was to reinforce the absurd judicial decision of not guilty? “All is forgiven, Ben is back”.
David Schout
Expert
I never said they were toothless, but they were wicketless and expensive. My main point was the fact Denly was obviously encouraged to pitch it up into the footmarks, but had no cover fielder. This beggars belief
David Schout
Expert
3/20 off 8. Man of the match. Yes, he destroyed Australia in the WC semi-final
Kevin
Roar Rookie
Yes, give Bairstow time off to really concentrate on batting.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
I am guessing that England expected the ball to turn sharply on Day 4. The problem was that Ali couldn’t exploit it! I would be OK with Ali opening the bowling but when it became obvious that plan wasn’t working I was dumbfounded that Root did not call on Woakes.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
There’s a few reasons they won’t be picking Morgan. Has a Test average of 30, a first class average of only 33, hasn’t played a red ball game since April, and indeed hasn’t played a lot of first class cricket in recent years.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Good point about not bowling Woakes, but when exactly did he “destroy” Australia” in the weeks leading up to the Test series? Do you mean getting out Warner and Handscomb in the WC semi-final?
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Certainly there have been some fast bowlers who didn't seem particularly sharp, but the same can be said for a lot of batsmen. Mind you, lots of players who seem like they might night have the highest IQ overall, actually have a very good cricket brain. Someone like Warner might fall into that category. Most think of him as a bit of a boofhead and not that intelligent, but by all reports, he has been a very, very good captain in the IPL. I think the fact that bowlers are more likely to be in and out, especially because of injuries and things, plus the fact that, especially fast bowlers, often seem to like having their "rest time" down at fine leg between overs, rather than having to be in the action all the time as a captain needs to. Pat Cummins has expressed exactly that when asked about his potential as captain one day. Plus, when a bowler is a captain there can be a tendency to either overbowl themselves, or underbowl themselves. There can be less objectivity about who the right person is to bowl. And over all, a batting captain can be more focussed on captaining in the field. They don't have to be thinking about their own bowling. So they can be more focussed on the captaining. In between overs, when a bowler isn't bowling, they will probably be constantly thinking about what they should be doing in their next over, what plans to implement to each batsman etc. So it's harder to be focussed on the over that's happening at the time.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
I'm tempted to say something about the big disparity in the functional brain cell count between batsmen and bowlers, but that might be a bit cruel. .. Another actual reason could be that batsmen generally tend to have longer careers and less injury problems than fast bowlers. More bang for your captaincy buck in terms of time spent on the field.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
The 2 W's and Holder. Of course.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Bob Willis was England Captain.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Botham and Flintoff too, although neither of their stints was a great advertisement for pace-bowling skippers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_England_cricket_captains
JamesH
Roar Guru
I’m shocked that they didn’t make Buttler vice captain ahead of Stokes.