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England’s media has a short memory – less than a week after the agony of the fourth Test loss in Manchester, their day one effort has been described as their most disappointing day of the Ashes.
Nick Hoult in The Telegraph said England’s failure to convert several promising starts or take advantage of a few dropped catches from the visitors left them well behind after being dismissed for 283 and Australia making 1-61 by stumps.
“This was the most disappointing day of the series from the England batsmen given the manner of dismissals, the lives gifted by tired Australian catchers and Pat Cummins’s reticence with his fields,” he wrote.
“Again it was great entertainment, although more of a pub band singalong type of fun than a polished stadium gig standard as tired players lapsed in concentration.
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“England were a mixed bag of brilliant and brainless, and seemed to throw their hands up when they lost the toss and decided they had nothing to lose in going for it, believing 250 a good total.”
Jonny Bairstow is bowled by Josh Hazlewood. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
In the same masthead, Oliver Brown also launched into England for their careless batting.
“They reverted to a restless, skittish mode, pressing the throttle so hard that the engine malfunctioned. On a gift of a batting surface where 400 should have been par, they could not even see out 55 overs.
“Minds on the beach? It is an accusation often levelled at football players when the jeopardy drains from their campaigns. It felt apt to ask at times of England’s batsmen, whose protection of their wickets tended towards the lackadaisical.
“The question is why it always needs to be this way with England under the Bazball revolution. Why is there always the instinct to go hell for leather? Why can they never be convinced that restraint might be the better option than uncontrolled belligerence?”
Former England captain Nasser Hussain thought the home side didn’t adapt to the bowling-friendly conditions well enough.
“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t be looking to score quickly and not expect some of these kinds of dismissals,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“And give Australia some credit. Pat Cummins said himself that he didn’t have the best of games in Manchester but he was excellent as captain yesterday. All his bowling changes throughout the day had their desired effect as within an over or two a wicket followed.
“But the overwhelming feeling was that this was two sides trying to stumble over the finish line.
“While I marvelled at the brilliance of the sides over the first four games, here I have seen frailties.”
Harry Brook, who rode his luck after being dropped early by Alex Carey to make a brisk 85, is the future of England’s batting line-up, according to The Guardian’s Andy Bull.
With Joe Root entering the twilight of his career and captain Ben Stokes showing signs of wear and tear in his 30s, Brook has been a revelation since his debut last year.
“If Stokes’s team has a legacy, it will be in the influence it has on Brook and his contemporaries Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. The three of them are going to shape England’s Test cricket for the next decade.
“Brook is one of those rare players who has the talent and technical expertise to play this game pretty much any which way he chooses. An alumni of the Yorkshire school of batting, it’s easy to imagine that in another era, and one not so very long ago, his batting would probably had a very different, altogether more diligent, character.
“But Brook has only ever played under Stokes, and so he looks like a natural-born Bazballer.
“His 85 here was his 11th score of 50 or more in 12 Tests, and takes his overall tally to 1174 runs at an average of 65 and a strike rate of 92 per hundred balls, which is quicker than Shahid Afridi, and Virender Sehwag and Adam Gilchrist.
“Quicker, in fact, than any of the 579 other batsmen in the history of Test cricket who made at least 1000 runs. At this point, Brook is better than anyone faster, and faster than anyone better.”
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