Nasser Hussain impressed by England seam attack at The Gabba despite Australia dominating day two of the Ashes opener; former England captain says Australia were "smart" and looks at how an injury to Ben Stokes would be a "nightmare" for Joe Root's tourists
Thursday 9 December 2021 23:30, UK
It was another difficult day for England in the first Ashes Test as Australia closed with a lead of 196. Nasser Hussain praises the tourists' seam attack and the home side's intelligent approach, while also discussing team selection and an injury concern for Ben Stokes.
The scorecard doesn't really reflect how day two went at The Gabba as I thought England, especially in that first session, bowled really well. I cannot fault the three main seamers, in particular.
Ollie Robinson was quite brilliant with the new ball in his first Test in Australia and I was also impressed with Mark Wood around the wicket to David Warner with his pace.
Chris Woakes was good as well - although, if you were being hypercritical, he could have been a bit fuller.
That's where he has struggled a little bit in Australia - he bowls that natural back of a length and you do need to be a bit fuller.
The three of them stuck so well to their job - but Australia were just very, very smart.
It did a lot in that first session and David Warner, who scored 94, and Marnus Labuschagne, who made 74, worked out that getting 20 runs off those seamers bowling that well would take 10 overs.
Labuschagne gave a masterclass in how to leave the ball on length - England's No 3 Dawid Malan needs to look at that as he played at a ball on day one that was bouncing well above the stumps.
Labuschagne let the bowlers come to him, knowing that England would have to turn to their spinner eventually, knowing that Joe Root's attack were undercooked, knowing they would tire towards the end of the day in a long last session. Australia knew they could cash in and they did.
The moment Jack Leach came on he was smashed. Australia kept on smashing him, Root had to go back to the seamers and, by the end of the day, they were absolutely cooked.
Travis Head counter-attacked when England were working their way back into the game and then went hard late in the day to press home their advantage
But he did it in a controlled manner. It wasn't a slog or a swipe. He batted properly but still reached 51 after 51 balls and then got to his hundred off 85. It was controlled aggression and assessing the opposition.
Labuschagne and Head have been playing cricket in these conditions, in the Sheffield Shield, and England haven't - but I don't know what England could have done about that.
They couldn't have the preparation Sir Andrew Strauss' side had in 2010/11 with warm-up game after warm-up game, with bowlers getting overs into their legs and batters getting used to the bounce so they can leave on length.
The signs were there before a ball was bowled.
I feel for Leach as he is being asked to bowl at The Gabba when he hasn't bowled for England in about 10 months. I don't think he bowled badly. At times towards the end he was a bit negative to Head down the leg-side with a leg-side field but that was under orders.
England's team selection - leaving out Stuart Broad and James Anderson - is being questioned, with some saying one of them could have played instead of Leach.
However, if you leave Leach out and then second time around - after you have hopefully got big first-innings runs - it starts spinning, everyone will say 'where is your balanced attack?'. Any spinner will tell you 147 all out is not where you want to be starting from.
As I said yesterday, I would have played one of Broad or Anderson. Not just thinking of this game but also so they both weren't going into the day-night second Test in Adelaide having not bowled in a long time - so who do you leave out?
Woakes is a very good cricketer who also gives you runs down the order, Robinson has to play, for me, although the one thing with him is that he does tire towards the end of the day. You want the point of difference of Wood's pace and you do need a spin option in Australia
But when you have all that experience, all those Test wickets, and Broad's record against Warner, maybe you go with Broad - even if it's just for Warner, who he dominated in the Ashes at home in 2019.
Warner was always going to be a threat. If he plays well, the Australia batting line-up fits in pretty well after him, as we saw.
But it's not the bowling attack why England are in this position - 147 all out in the first innings is, and that has been their nemesis for some time. Considerable first-innings runs.
England are sweating on Ben Stokes' fitness after he jarred his knee. It will be a nightmare scenario if he cannot bowl in this game or moving forward to Adelaide.
He is irreplaceable - even Justin Langer said Australia would love to have him in their side - and everything revolves around him.
Stokes still plays for me as he is one of England's best five batters, probably their second-best one after Root. But then you find it hard to have five bowlers and you do need five bowlers.
Australia's lead is going to be above 200 and England are going to have to bat well. It's as simple as that.
Often at The Gabba day three is the best day to bat with the sideways movement going - but this is an odd pitch and hasn't flattened out yet. It did a lot in the first session on day two and was still doing a lot towards the end.
There were balls, at times, that disturbed the surface, you could see puffs of grass or dirt come up. Australia's seamers will be thinking that if England's tired bowlers can go past the bat so can we.
England's way back is to get 400. It's their only way back - other than hoping for a bit of rain.
