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After the first Test loss to Australia there was a lot of talk about England not leaving enough balls and being unable to bat time. They should do the opposite and look to score more off those deliveries so they can put the pressure back on the home side.
England fell into the same trap that many touring teams have in Australia by playing with too straight a bat face and not counterattacking deliveries aimed at the top of off stump and just outside.
This is extremely important in a pink ball Test if you bat first. Yes, you need wickets in hand when you enter the twilight phase but its more important to have runs on the board when you do.
With a lot of pink ball Test matches going only four days the quicker you can get to 350 the better chance you have of winning the Test which means you have to be able to counter attack
It’s better to look to score quickly rather than have a mindset of occupying the crease because when you’re facing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, sooner or later they’re going to get you.
We saw that with Joe Root in the first innings at the Gabba – he had to play at a perfectly placed delivery from Hazlewood, got a nick and was on his way for a duck. That can happen to the best batters in the world and Root is certainly one of those.
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But most of the other English dismissals during the first Test were examples of batters being too tentative on off stump and playing with a straight bat and either being squared up or edging conventionally when the horizontal approach would have been a far better option.
Touring teams when they come to Australia, particularly at the Gabba, make the same mistake of playing vertical-bat strokes when they should be pulling or cutting the ball from off stump.
You need to be looking to play aggressively – part of England’s problem was paying the Australians too much respect. If you’re not turning the scoreboard, and the strike, over then you’re not forcing them to change their tactics or Cummins to shuffle the bowlers around.
Because they’ve proven time and time again they will get you with a good ball and you’re likely to get yourself if you’re defending at a ball you can score off.
If you keep letting balls go you are denying yourself scoring opportunities. Batters start to second guess themselves and it blurs decision making. You’ve got to find a way to score.
With the second Test in Adelaide being a day-nighter, that means they’ll be facing a pink ball that swings more and whether it’s Jhye Richardson or Michael Neser coming in for Hazlewood, they’ll still face plenty of deliveries in that off-stump corridor.
They’ll be rolled for small scores again if they keep playing with a defensive mindset and look to drive the moving ball instead of taking the horizontal route. A good late weight transfer with intent is the key.
A lot of the time in Brisbane you could see the English batters made very early decisions to let the ball go.
People sometimes question the exuberant and aggressive way that Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith let balls go and think ‘why do they bother doing that?’ But they’re actually making their decision really late to leave, play defensively or aggressively and thus deal with the moving ball and threats more effectively.
Marnus Labuschagne. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
If the bowlers are a foot, wide or short or full, they’re in a position to take advantage of that without second guessing themselves. They play the moving ball better than the English batters do in Australian conditions as they don’t commit until the last split second.
You could see the game turn briefly on day one in the first Test when we saw in that brief cameo from Jos Buttler in the first innings that if you play with intent, you put pressure back on the fielding team and even if you do nick one, the ball tends to go over the slips.
I’d be bringing Jonny Bairstow back into the side and would prefer Liam Livingstone as well. Both are exceptional pullers of the ball and score quickly – it might be left field but that’s what is needed to compete in Australian conditions.
Bairstow’s Test record is probably not what it should be with his talent. I’d open the batting with him, getting him out to hurt the scoreboard. He doesn’t open in first-class cricket but he does in white-ball games for England.
Batting time is overrated, the name of the game is scoring runs.
If you’ve got Bairstow at the top of the order, he can play horizontal shots like he does in white-ball cricket. Tell him to play his natural game rather than looking to play the perfect front-foot defence.
Touring teams continually do that, commit the front foot early, overstride, they’re defence-orientated and the Australian quicks go thank you very much.
Players who have done well like Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers have kept the scoreboard ticking over and have also put their teams in a position where they can win the match.
Travis Head showed the spoils of good intent. It was great to see that scoring in the channel was still an option for Travis after it being an issue previously. He was rewarded for challenging the bowlers with a horizontal bat face and was able to defend or leave late thus dealing with danger.
If you’re defence-minded, you commit early, you’re worried about not getting out and just playing straight, you’re already committed to a shot and someone like Cummins who moves the ball half a bat width every time brings the edge into play.
Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon for longevity as a quartet, and with more than 1000 Test wickets between, them are probably the best four-man bowling attack of all time.
How are you going to get to 350 to give yourself a chance to put the pressure on the opposition?
Are you going to let Lyon bowl in long spells to give the fast bowlers a rest and they’ve now got a genuine fifth bowler who is on the cusp of something great with Cameron Green.
They’ve got to find a way of scoring and to me that’s on top of off stump, looking to play with a horizontal face.
England dodged a bullet in Brisbane with Smith missing out. Australia are going to be harder to beat in a lot of ways in Adelaide, especially if Smith gets in the runs.
Through the pandemic Australia missed out on the 12-14 Tests that they have been used to playing every year and the likes of Smith and David Warner have been starved of consistent red ball matches and prep that usually allows them to slip easily between red and white ball. Though, I’m not seeing anything that suggests there’s a problem or England have figured Smith out and I expect him to continue to dominate.
Got a question? Please feel free to leave in the comments below.
Could someone maintain a spot in a high level T20 team predominantly on the basis of their fielding?
I think they would have to show the ability to improve in either batting or bowling to maintain their place. Players are becoming more athletic which makes it easier to improve the fielding. Batting and bowling need more work, even with the athletes, to improve and the opposition has a greater say in those two disciplines.