Ashes 2019 | Day 3 Talking Points - Tim Paine's tactical blunder and England's double trouble

Tim Paine’s bemusing tactic lets England off the hook

After starting the day on 267/4, just 17 runs behind Australia’s first innings total, the English batsmen were rocked back by four strikes in quick succession by the Aussies, who managed to pull back things to 300/8, with England leading by a mere 16 runs. At this stage, the contest was well and truly in the balance, and with both Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad new to the crease, the Kangaroos had a golden opportunity to skittle them out with the lead well under 50. 

It is no secret that Broad is someone who has been scarred by the shorter ball, and many a time in the past, has perished in a matter of deliveries - almost out of will - in order to avoid facing further chin music. With Pat Cummins and James Pattinson in the shed, the stage was set for the Aussies to be hostile, punish Broad with bouncers and put an end to the innings. However, shockingly, they decided to wait for a baffling 52 deliveries before giving the left-hander his first taste of the short-ball. By then, the Nottinghamshire man had already raced off to 24, stitching an invaluable 65-run partnership with Woakes.

To add to this, Paine and co. also resorted to defensive tactics early on into their partnership, with Broad and Woakes collecting 51 runs between them through 1s, 2s, and 3s. In the quest of trying to stop the leakage of runs, the Aussies forgot the art of attacking the batsmen, and thus, in the process, allowing the Englishmen to take a 90-run lead, with 74 of those runs added by the last two wickets. 

Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler’s never-ending barren continues to hurt England

As we described earlier, two men, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler have a scarily similar CV.  They both are wicket-keepers who don’t have a fixed position in the batting line-up, both are limited over dynamites but criminal under-achievers in Tests. While the former boasts a Test average of 36.24 with 9 ODI hundreds, the latter too has 9 ODI hundreds to go along with a Test average of 35.87. And both men twinned once again in the first innings, but for the wrong reasons, unfortunately, as they were dismissed for single-digit scores. 

This once again begs to ask the question - is England’s obsession with fielding white-ball specialists in Test cricket justified? Ben Foakes, who, despite lighting up County cricket over the past two seasons, being an integral part of England’s historic clean-sweep over Sri Lanka, where he scored two match-winning knocks and averaging 42, has been ignored blatantly - a decision which has been inexplicable. 

Between them, the duo have scored a solitary century in their last 27 Test innings, and with England already suffering a top-order crisis of sorts barring Joe Root, the double Js - Jonny and Jos, have barely helped the cause of the team with their efforts. Yes, their ability to counter-punch and take the attack back to the opposition bowlers is second to none, but as Rory Burns proved yesterday, maybe, just maybe, in these conditions, you’re better off respecting the bowlers, tiring them out and frustrating them, instead of trying to intimidate them and hit them out of the attack. With batsmen outside the XI more than willing to do whatever it takes to grind out wins, it remains to be seen how long England will persist with the dual wicket-keeper experiment of Bairstow and Buttler, in Test cricket.

Australia lose two early too early

27, 17, 61, 59 and 62 -  Australia’s scores in each of Steve Smith’s last five innings, when he has come out to bat. Unsurprisingly for the New South Welshman, one year of hiatus from cricket seems to have made no difference, as he once again found himself in a very uncomfortable yet familiar position. 

Meanwhile, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who inaugurated their partnership in style putting on an unbeaten 173 in just their second innings together, have fizzled out slowly. The duo have accumulated partnerships of 27, 43, 57, 2 and 13 in their last five innings together, and like the numbers above suggest, it is not like one of them has gone onto make it count either, with both openers walking back to the pavilion in more or less around the same time. 

The failure up top has meant that Australia have often begun their innings on the back-foot from the word go, not only putting more pressure on the experienced duo of Smith and Usman Khawaja, but also the inexperienced middle-order of Travis Head and Matthew Wade, exposing them way too early. And to their credit, England have also identified the chinks in Australia’s armour, constantly probing and putting their openers under pressure, before eventually seeing them succumb. 

With Warner carrying heaps of experience with him and Bancroft too having played enough cricket with Durham to have a good idea about the conditions, it has to be said that duo have disappointed big time, and have only left their team in a more vulnerable position. The opportunity to make amends has gone in the second innings, but you never know, with a warm-up match sandwiched between the first two Tests, Bancroft’s place in the team might very well be under scanner should Marcus Harris go berserk against Worcestershire on August 7th.