Ashes 2021-22 | England openers are way too inexperienced to counter quality Australian bowling attack, says Simon Katich

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.

“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.”