Alastair Cook: A shoddy and unforgivable England batting display of scrambled minds

I ask because their top order keeps repeating mistakes — not only from Brisbane but across the past year. In 20 innings since the first-Test win in India in February, only four times have they posted a total in excess of 300. That might have been excusable on the pitches in Chennai and Ahmedabad but not on the surfaces they faced in the English summer and, now, down under.

Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, who finished the first innings of the second Test with seven wickets between them, are world-class bowlers but neither is in the form of his life — as Mitchell Johnson was in 2013-14 and Shane Warne was for much of the Nineties. Nor are they bowling on pitches which look as if they have been prepared specifically for their talents. So we come back to English mistakes.

Haseeb Hameed gifted his wicket on Friday evening; Joe Root and Jos Buttler played at balls they didn’t have to; Dawid Malan couldn’t bring the same precision to a shot which a delivery earlier had brought him four; and Ollie Pope, having defended well, suddenly came dancing down the track and gave a gentle catch to short leg. For those dismissals to happen in the same innings in Australia — where you know batting becomes considerably easier once you’ve negotiated the new ball or your first 20 balls — looks shoddy. For it to recur after the second-innings collapse in the previous Test is unforgivable, though we might be willing to pardon Root after his efforts single-handedly carrying the batting line-up these past 12 months.

The template for batting in Australia was neatly summed up by Malan in his post-match interview, when asked why he and Root had thrived in the morning session. “We defended late, played our lines and left well,” he said. It’s easier said than done, of course, especially against an attack which boasts the all-round experience, quality and variation of Starc, Lyon, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but the latter pair are missing in Adelaide.

This was England’s chance to put the pressure back on the Australian bowlers. Michael Neser is making his Test debut, Jhye Richardson playing his third Test. Root and Malan showed the way. So why did no one else follow suit? My worry is that with the exception of Rory Burns, whose fault looks to be technical, this weakness is becoming psychological.

Past collective failures are playing on the minds of our batsmen, chipping away at their confidence and authority. And the Australia bowlers never sink to a level which can be gainfully exploited. They don’t get concerned if they don’t take a wicket in a session, as happened in Brisbane and Adelaide, because they know they only need one good ball or an England mistake to expose their opponents’ middle order.

On BT Sport, we analysed the key match-ups that their bowlers were winning: Starc v Burns, Cameron Green v Root, Lyon v Pope. In each instance, the Australian has dismissed the Englishman two out of three times. After two Tests of a five-match series, that becomes an issue. Just ask David Warner, who fell under the spell of Stuart Broad early on two years ago and couldn’t buy a run after that. England’s problems are accentuated by the fact that none of our bowlers hold such sway. Warner has shaken off the grip of Broad and the form of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith is ominous.

My worry for Burns is that he has been dismissed by a left-arm pace bowler seven times since the summer of 2020, and he is up against the best in the world in Starc. The way his head, hands and bat move in his trigger movement means the edge is more likely to be exposed to the ball coming into him than going away. In the middle of a series, and with the next Test only a week away, he doesn’t have time to take proper remedial action. My short-term advice would be to work on his alignment, to concentrate on playing late and out to mid-off rather than pushing straighter down the pitch.

I don’t think Pope has as many issues over his technique but I wonder if he really trusts his defence. I mentioned on air a match against Essex when he had danced down the wicket to Simon Harmer, another good spinner. It stuck in my mind because, although he was in form at that time, it looked frenetic and betrayed doubt.

I’m all for trying to put pressure back on the bowler but you need to do so on your terms, and against a bowler with more than 400 Test wickets, you need to be circumspect. That starts with defence. Pope needs to look at his captain. Against Lyon, Root trusts his defence but also has low-risk shots to keep the scoreboard ticking over. It means that when he does attack, he does so on his terms. With the exception of when Root and Malan are at the crease, this Ashes is being played on the home side’s terms.

– The Times