Harry Brooke hit high in the air and lost the wicket to Lord. Photo: Getty Images/AFP
England have become a team that continues to give. They won't admit it publicly, but Australia certainly can't believe its luck.
The hard truth that England can't accept is that you can't play as expansively as you'd like at every stage of the five-match five-day test series. I have never seen anything like it.
They have played great cricket over the past year. It was great to see. As a commentator and expert, I liked it, because there was something to talk about. But I also want them to win the Ashes, which they won't do if they keep going like this.
This is the series everyone was aiming for, not only because it's Ashes, but also because Australia is the best team in the world.
England have every advantage in this game. They won the draw with low clouds. By the time they got to the bat, the weather was fine. Then Nathan Lyon got injured.
Around the time of Lyon's injury, Australia turned to short ball tactics. Basically, it was an admission that they were in a last chance saloon. All England had to do on Thursday was take a few hits. Australia would soon switch to a different tactic because it's a deflection job. It's actually a bold move: get under a few, put on a few, try to break the spell. Get Australia, no spinner, for 100, 120 overs. The easiest way out is to take it upon yourself. Australia scored some shorts, England took over and now they gave them the chance to go 2-0 up. Only one team ever came back 2-0 to the Ashes to win and they had Don Bradman.< /p>
A few things really bothered me. First, how Harry Brook played.
Brook is a good player. He is so talented. He doesn't have to do what he did in that first opportunity. His throw to get out was terrible, but three or four times he danced around the gate and found a place to hit it. On Thursday he could have been played terribly. Why? What is he afraid of? What is he worried about? He knows that if he gets even a semi-bad ball, he can hit it for four because he's such a good player. He does not need to come up with something unusual or excessive.
Brook will get short things every time he goes out. The field will expand. A smart cricket thinker would say, «I've done my job, just shut up.» But you'll never see England do that.
Brooks can expect more short stories from the Australians throughout the series. Photo: Reuters/Matthew Childs
I was also bothered by Ben Duckett's comments on the second night. He said that if we had been hit by dodgeball, Australia would have won the battle. You mean you're not allowed to dodge a few?! This is a test for five days, five games. All the time can't be easy. I think England is always trying to make it look easy. It's a tough environment. Sometimes it is frightening, demoralizing. Such is the nature of Test cricket against the best team in the world. What I see is an England team that is unwilling to take heavy yards with a bat in hand when it really matters. Yes.
As Duckett showed, the England team talks a lot. I have no doubt that they will come out and say that Ben Stokes played to exhaustion, did a lot of things right in the traditional sense, then got a good ball and was out on 17. They will use that to justify the expansive game. They will probably say they were unsettled because there were clouds around so we thought this was the best chance to unsettle Australia and we'll be chasing whatever they have in store for us!
They will tell us that choosing the high risk option led them to 188 for one on the second day. Well, yes, it did. But then a good team recognizes that the field is scattered and it's time to play smart. Play expansively at the right moments, but once you're at the top, realize it and ruthlessly take out Australia.
They can still win this game, but they screwed up. They did the same in Edgbaston. They were at the top for 90 percent of that match but didn't capitalize on it, keeping Australia in the game with their statement and lack of violence in the third inning. They should have won that game, but they didn't. The same is happening here. There must be consequences for this. It can't be an environment where everyone is constantly throwing big punches. This is wrong. You can't play high risk cricket all the time and go unnoticed.
I wonder if any of the English players have noticed how the natural aggressor David Warner played in this game. He only got 25 in his second innings, but he fought against his instincts for the sake of the team and the situation. That's why every time Australia needed to win an hour or a session in this series, they did.
The Australians came up with the idea of playing a short game with a trap set by the English, who have won it quite a lot over the past a few years. Just before it started to rain on Friday, they did it again. But oddly enough, Usman Khawaja was smart enough not to get sucked into trying to hit every ball. England, take note.
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