"The way he plays spin, as soon as he comes in, Moeen Ali will be on."
Saturday 25 November 2017 00:28, UK
Rob Key dissects day two of the first Ashes Test and says Australia's selectors have a lot to answer for over the way they have dealt with Usman Khawaja, who "may as well be dropped"...
I think the first two days in Brisbane are a reflection of what we're going to see in this whole Ashes series, it is just going to ebb and flow. I don't think either side is going to dominate right the way throughout the Ashes, we're going to have more of what we've had in the first two days.
You'd probably say that 350 is a decent score on that pitch from what we've seen, even 300 looks a good score. It is always going to be hard when you've got the pace that Australia have and on surfaces like the one at the Gabba, England's lower order collapse is nothing that you didn't expect.
When you play on bouncier surfaces it is not often that the tail really hang around. I don't think it is that much of a concern because I still think England's lower middle order and tail are better than Australia's. I wouldn't be surprised if, when the Australian tail come in, you might see a similar thing happening.
If you were a swing voter and you weren't sure who was going to win the series, England or Australia, you'd have to vote for England based on the first two days. I think they have got more out of this Test match, for that very reason.
Australia have got Tim Paine in next, a guy who has got one first-class hundred in his career, and hasn't even been a regular for his domestic side, and then they're into the bowlers.
Steve Smith is still standing in their way and when a player gets runs against you, you want to know that you've tried everything. What you don't want to do is let him getting all the way up to 50 or 100 and only have tried one plan.
England are right to mix up their plans between bowling wide of his off stump at times and bowling very straight with a strong legside field at others - they've got the bowlers in Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Jake Ball with the skills to do it.
Smith is the best player in the world, or at least one of the best players in the world, for a reason. He's awkward to bowl at, gets right across his stumps and if he is going to walk off with a hundred, you want to know you've tested every part of him.
His average is ridiculous in Test cricket, even after a very poor start to his Test career. If you take his second coming, if you like, he averages over 60 so you have to try everything you can, chop and change. If there was just one way to bowl at these people, they wouldn't be the best in the world.
Smith came in after Moeen Ali showed up Usman Khawaja's weakness against spin once again.
The Australian selectors have a lot to answer for with Khawaja. Fair enough, he can't play spin but we've seen him play over the years and he is not a bad player.
You may as well just drop him because the way he plays spin, as soon as he comes in, Ali will be on. I feel for Khawaja because the Australian selection policy has been so haphazard.
Nasser Hussain has made a good point that the selections you make should take pressure off players, I think the Australian selectors have put so much pressure on Khawaja by the way they just discarded him in the subcontinent.
You may as well just drop him because the way he plays spin, as soon as he comes in, Ali will be on. I feel for Khawaja because the Australian selection policy has been so haphazard and with Glenn Maxwell having hit a double hundred in the Sheffield Shield today, there is every chance he'll be in for the next Test.
Overall, I think the way James Vince, Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan have played compared to Cameron Bancroft, Khawaja and Peter Handscomb, you'd say the England players have got more confidence from the game so far than the Australians have, albeit the Aussies have got Smith, who is just a freak really.
Australia are going to have to bat last on this pitch, which isn't proving to be an easy pitch to bat on so I'm with England.
They've won a decent toss, played well and you'd say that England have 11 players who are contributing, or at least can contribute, whereas there are question marks over the Australian batting line-up and if you take Warner and Smith out of it, you think it could be hairy for them, as well as Shaun Marsh has played.
I just think England are in a better position in this match and in the series.
