Ashes 2021-22 | England openers are way too inexperienced to counter quality Australian bowling attack, says Simon Katich
Former Australia cricketer Simon Katich believes that the England openers are way too inexperienced to tackle the quality Australian bowling attack. Katich further added that technically there are some issues with the England batsmen's concentration and letting balls go around the off stump.
Ashes 2021-22 has commenced and Australia have been a dominating force throughout the five-match series. The hosts are leading by 2-0 and will be looking forward to clinching the series victory with a win in the third Test in Melbourne. The Australian bowlers have been brilliant throughout the ongoing Ashes series, and troubled the England batsmen by scalping wickets at regular intervals.
The middle-order batsmen of the visitors have been trying their best to outplay the Australian bowling attack, however, the opening pair has been a worrying factor for England in the ongoing five-match series. Also, in the ongoing Melbourne Test Haseeb Hameed was dismissed on scores of 0 and 7, while Zak Crawley could only manage scores of 12 and 5 in the first and second innings respectively. England have so far tried three openers - Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed and Zak Crawley, and the batsmen were seen struggling against pace and bounce on Australian pitches. The highest partnership between the England opening pair in the ongoing Ashes series so far is 23 runs. Also, none of the openers has scored more than 34 in five innings, and averages less than 15.
Reflecting on the poor performance of the England openers, former Australia cricketer Simon Katich opined that the opening pair of the visitors are way too inexperienced to counter the quality bowling attack of Australia.
“Yesterday (Sunday) they were both very inexperienced, they’re both youngsters finding their feet at Test level, it’s not easy,” Katich said to sen.com.au.
“They’ve been exposed by a very good Australian attack, they’re coming up in conditions that they haven’t really experienced before, so that’s something that’s caused them issues, England’s (in)ability to leave a lot more balls. Particularly in a bouncy wicket because as soon as you start playing away from yourself in these conditions with the extra pace and bounce you get into trouble, that’s what we’ve seen throughout the series.”
For England, only Joe Root and Dawid Malan have looked comfortable with the bat against Australia in the ongoing five-match series. Katich reckoned that there are some issues with the England batsmen's concentration and letting balls go around the off stump.
“They’ve (England cricketers) fed the slips and (wicketkeeper) Alex Carey… technically there’s some issues with their concentration and letting balls go around off stump,” he concluded.