Ashes in a nutshell: After a day of toil in Adelaide, have England picked the wrong team?
Australia end day one of pink-ball Test on 221-2, with Marnus Labuschagne 95 not out after being dropped twice by Jos Buttler; Stuart Broad strikes in his 150th Test match - but have England gone into the game with the right bowling combinations?
Thursday 16 December 2021 12:31, UK
Australia on top - again. England's selection calls up for debate - again. Here are the notables from day one of the pink-ball Test in Adelaide...
REPORT
David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne's watchful half-centuries - and Jos Buttler's drops - gave Australia the upper hand on an attritional first day of the pink-ball second Test in Adelaide, writes David Ruse.
Australia captain Pat Cummins was identified as a close Covid-19 contact having sat near someone carrying the virus during an evening meal in the city, so vice-captain Steve Smith has stepped up to lead the side for the first time since the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in 2018.
Smith elected to bat after winning the toss and watched on as Warner (95 off 167) and Labuschagne (95no off 275) put on 172 for Australia's second wicket, before the stand-in skipper hit 18 not out from 71 balls once Warner slashed Ben Stokes to Stuart Broad at cover to fall in the 90s for the second successive Test after his 94 in Brisbane.
Labuschagne was dropped by England wicketkeeper Buttler off Stokes on 21 and then again by the same man late in the day on 95 after James Anderson induced an outside edge with the second new ball.
Australia - who lead the five-match series 1-0 after a nine-wicket victory at The Gabba last week - closed on 221-2 from 89 overs with England's samey, five-pronged pace attack, missing the rested Mark Wood, perhaps guilty of bowling too short, particularly under the lights with the old ball.
TALKING POINTS
Have England picked the wrong team?
Many felt they did that in Brisbane last week by leaving out Anderson and Broad and playing left-arm spinner Jack Leach on a pitch which was pretty green after some wet Queensland weather. A heavy defeat for the tourists only added that notion.
Well, have England made another boo-boo?
England's five-strong seam attack - Anderson, Broad, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes and Stokes - is very one-paced, while there was some spin for Root on the first day in Adelaide and perhaps much more to come with temperatures expected to soar in South Australia.
Yes, it is easy to see why England went seamer heavy, with Leach collared at The Gabba to the tune of 102 runs from his 13 overs and their other spinner Dom Bess having not set Test cricket alight
And, yes, they are looking after Wood, their only bowler on this trip capable of bowling missiles.
England want him to play as much as possible but perhaps he should be playing here, because without a 90mph-plus bowler and a frontline spinner the attack lacks variety.
Even if we accept that Leach and Bess are no Nathan Lyon, the latter's record of 19 wickets in pink-ball Adelaide Tests at an average of 25, should have given them encouragement.
The other talking point was whether England bowled too short, as they beat the edge a number of times without actually finding it, until Anderson found Labuschagne's in the 85th over only for Buttler to spill the chance.
Plus, if it was a tactic to bowl short, then would Wood not have been a valuable asset? We will only know whether England have made a blunder in the fullness of time but it's not the start they were after...
MOMENT OF THE DAY
For England, it was the catch that lit up a slow-going, 45-run first session as Buttler dove Superman style to his right to take a one-handed stunner, send Marcus Harris on his way for three, and earn Broad an early wicket in his landmark 150th Test.
For Australia, it was the Buttler drops that spared Labuschagne on 21 and 95. Buttler probably should have taken the first chance down the leg-side but he should definitely have taken the second one to his right late on.
Buttler took neither and Labuschagne is now five runs away from a sixth Test century, with his previous five each having come in Australia's first innings in games.
WHAT THEY SAID
Matt Prior, speaking to BT Sport: "England have toiled hard. They didn't have much luck in the beginning, but you've got to take your chances. Buttler, having taken a stunning chance at the beginning of the day, will be disappointed with those two drops.
"Everyone thinks it's the hands that get you the catch, it's not - it is your footwork and then your hands just follow. You have got to do the work with your legs. There were a couple of takes down the leg side where he had a dive, sort of a bit of a fall and a flop - that is lazy wicketkeeping."
Sir Alastair Cook, speaking to BT Sport: "On another day, Labuschagne may have been caught. But the sign of a great player is that when you're not at your best and not in the rhythm you would like to, you still guts it out. He's 95 not out, which you would take on any day of a Test match."
Glenn McGrath, speaking to BT Sport: "England went out there to try and keep it tight and not let Australia get away. You bowl maiden overs and you start getting in the zone of keeping it tight rather than taking wickets.!
