England should stop worrying about pitches, boundary ropes and Smith’s county stint to sort out glaring weakness

With all England’s pre-Ashes hullabaloo surrounding Ben Stokes requesting specific pitches, bringing in the boundary rope to suit Bazball and Steve Smith supposedly getting an unfair advantage with his county stint, you’d think there’d be more important things to worry about. 

Like finding the first few batters who will counter Australia’s world-class bowling attack. 

When it comes to the batting, bowling and fielding departments between the Bazball-revived home side and the World Test Championship finalists Australia for the Ashes, there is not much between them heading into the June 16 opener at Birmingham. 

Except when it comes to the top order. 

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Australia have a glaring sore point in the form of David Warner but the struggling opener is alongside a recent run machine in Usman Khawaja and the world’s top-ranked Test batter in Marnus Labuschagne. 

Zak Crawley. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

For England, their top-order trio of Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope have been more often than not failing to produce decent scores and it’s been the middle-order engine room of Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and keeper Ben Foakes piling on the runs over the course of coach Brendon McCullum’s revolution of the past 12 months. 

Crawley has passed 50 just three times in the Bazball era, averaging 25.86 from 23 trips to the crease. England have persisted with him for 12 Tests but there are huge question marks on whether they can do so against Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood or Scott Boland. 

His recent county form is emblematic of why he’s such a frustrating figure at Test level – five failures for Kent, a 91 and a 170 against Essex.

With a career average of 25.19, he ranks sixth worst in Test history among players who have opened at least 48 innings.

Duckett has done well under McCullum, with four half-centuries and a 107 in his five appearances but averages 38.62 for his nine-match career and has never faced the Australians in any format at international level. 

Pope does have experience against the Aussie attack but not the kind you write home about – 67 runs at 11.16 from three Tests in the 2021-22 which may or may not have happened, if you ask Stuart Broad.

The 25-year-old from Surrey has been rocks and diamonds under the Bazball philosophy – five half-centuries and two tons in 22 knocks but was out before reaching 20 in half his innings, resulting in a good but not great average of 38.52 over the past year. 

Complicating the equation for England is that Jonny Bairstow, who was their best batter in the early stages of Bazball before breaking his leg playing golf (yes, that’s correct – failing awkwardly while walking off a tee box) last September. 

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)

He made his return to the red-ball arena last week playing for Yorkshire’s Second XI and belted 97 and 57 against the finest second-best attack Nottinghamshire could muster. 

Bairstow will return to county level later this week for a game against Glamorgan but will probably only have one more first-class fixture before England choose their squad for their warm-up Test against Ireland on June 1 at Lord’s. 

The 33-year-old veteran is a middle-order specialist but there is no room at the inn there with Root, Brook and Stokes so if the selectors believe Bairstow is ready to play in the Ashes to bolster their batting, they will have to switch around their line-up.

One option would be to play Bairstow as a keeper but he averaged 41.6 in the past five years when he doesn’t have the gloves with seven tons in 23 Tests as opposed to 24.57 and just one ton in 16 outings when he’s also been behind the stumps.

And Foakes has shown over nine Tests in his most recent stint as first-choice keeper that he has the glovework and reliable lower-order batting to be England’s long-term option. 

So that leaves England with the option of promoting Bairstow or Root into the top order although UK Telegraph chief cricket writer Scyld Berry floated a left-field idea recently that Stokes should promote himself to opener.

Pope has his hit straps at No.3 in the order after initially starting at six and has no experience as an opener and while Bairstow usually goes in first in the white-ball arena, he’s never done it at Test level.

Bairstow struggles at first drop (30.76 in 14 innings) compared to his preferred role in the middle order where he has amassed 5061 runs at 38.05.

Root also doesn’t like to be elevated above No.4 – he’s made 2222 runs at 39.67 at first drop but that number balloons to 8068 at 55.64 if he’s a slot or two lower.

He did open at Test level early in his career (417 runs at 41.7), including some success against Australia in the 2013 home series which was highlighted by 180 at Lord’s so if McCullum again wants to buck the trends of convention, it’s not inconceivable that England’s best batter could be used as a stopgap option. 

Although he has only done it once in the past decade when Haseeb Hameed, one of the options for a recall in this year’s Ashes, was unable to open in a 2016 Test in India due to a finger injury. 

England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. (Photo by Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)

The top order was one of the main reasons why England did not regain the Ashes at home in 2019 with Rory Burns the only reliable option as the likes of Joe Denly and Jason Roy providing little support or protection to Root and Stokes.

In their most-recent series, the 1-1 draw in New Zealand, England’s second wicket fell at 117 in their opening foray, then 68, 21 (on the way to being 3-21) and 53 en route to 5-80.

Bazball or not, England’s top-order batters need to be at the top of their game to ensure Australia don’t retain the Ashes for a fourth straight series.