Australia’s middle order shows core strength to outmuscle England in first Test

Australia’s middle order was supposed to be a weakness, but in truth it’s the top that needs fixing. Plus dodgy balls, a dodgier spinner and enter Jofra Archer: four things we learned from day four at Edgbaston.

• Match report: Aussies put Poms to the sword
• Debate settled - Smith’s best since Bradman
• Gloves are off: Wade proves class as Test bat
• Bite-sized Ashes: Everything you need to know

JUST SORT OUT THE TOP, THE AUSSIE MIDDLE ORDER LOOKS ROCK SOLID

Numbers four, five and six combined for 483 runs for Australia at Edgbaston. What a relief. Sure, 286 of those came from Steve Smith, but he’s bankable for a minimum of 62 each innings anyway, because that’s his unbelievable Test average.

But Travis Head backup up an accomplished first innings 34 with 51 in the second. It was the number five, and Australian vice-captain’s, seventh time past 50 in just nine Tests, all played in a row since his debut in the UAE last year.

Stream the 2019 India Tour of West Indies on KAYO SPORTS. Every T20I, ODI and Test LIVE on your TV or favourite device. Get your 14-day free trial >

The South Australian looked accomplished, and confident, particularly batting with Smith, who he could expect to be batting a lot with in the future.

Having begun his Test career as part of a flaky middle-order, Head relished the comfort of having an immovable object up the other end. He didn’t get 100, and has just one in those seven trips past 50.

Travis Head showed class and composure in both of his innings in the first Test.

But that’s now his Test average. Matthew Wade only got one in a nervous Test return, but his second innings effort of 110 smacked of a man absolutely comfortable in his batting skin. Wade has a come what may attitude to his Test career in his third incarnation, but only because he knows he can make runs at any level, and decided if that didn’t suit everyone, then so be it.

It’s the sort of pressure-off attitude the Australian order needs. Now selectors just have to decide who their best opener is; Cameron Bancroft or Marcus Harris, and the team could be sorted for a while.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE DODGY DUKES BALLS?

“The ball does get soft quite quick and you’ve seen how many times both teams have tried to get the ball changed because it’s been going out of shape quite a bit,” Aussie quick James Pattinson said after the Aussie first innings.

“But they’re quite reluctant to change it.”

England captain Joe Root asks umpire Joel Wilson to smell the ball … for some reason or other.

The “they” he was referring to were the umpires who spent a heap of day four running the Dukes ball through the rings they use to test its shape. Plenty called it a ploy, because it was doing nothing, and Steve Smith was whacking it to all parts.

A flat pitch, which only sprang to life for the spinners didn’t help. But given the Aussies had the same issue, and even got their second new ball changed after just 20 overs, maybe there is something wrong with the balls.

A special batch was ordered by England boss Ashley Giles for the Ashes, with specifications from 2018 when the ball moved for his men. That required some manufacturing adjustments at the Dukes factory and maybe the rush order didn’t allow for the best balls to be made. Questions are sure to be asked ahead of the second Test at Lords, because the balls are a pretty important part of the series.

GET READY FOR JOFRA

It was really only the Australian batsmen who were smiling when England’s World Cup hero Jofra Archer spent a week before the Ashes twerking in Barbados, and also recovering from a side strain, which meant he couldn’t play in the first Test.

England will be desperate to have Jofra Archer fit and firing for Lord’s.

Everyone else with a keen Ashes interest, including Aussie fans want to see the man who made his name in the Big Bash, and then at the World Cup, get on a Test tear.

But thankfully, again for everyone except the Aussie batsmen, Archer is odds-on to make his Test debut at Lords given the expected absence of veteran Jimmy Anderson.

The 37-year-old should probably not have played at Edgbaston, coming in to the match with a calf injury which only allowed him to bowl four overs. But taking his place kept Archer out, and gave the 24-year-old an extra few days to get his side strain perfect, so he can rip in to the Aussies in the second Test.

He just needs to get through a second XI game for Sussex first. Fear for the opposing batsmen.

LET’S HOPE ENGLAND KEEP PICKING MOEEN ALI

The locals are adamant Moeen Ali is a much better bowler at home.

He’d want to be, after taking just five wickets in the last Ashes in Australia, at a Steve Smith like average of 115.

He had a horror. But the locals swear he was England’s best bowler in England last year, and say that with the sort of confidence which suggests they really, really want to pick him. He does have 178 Test wickets, and five Test hundreds, which makes him a force on numbers alone.

But Nathan Lyon’s batting bunny is an absolute shell of a man at the moment, carrying what looks like zero confidence, with the bat, or the ball. His first innings dismissal, leaving a straight one from Lyon, was the eighth time in six Tests Lyons has got him. His bowling wasn’t much better, including an attempted donkey drop — backyard cricketers everywhere know what that is — to Smith. It could have just been accidental, but his efforts post that weren’t great. He returned figures match figures of .., but in the second innings went for nearly five an over, and threatening balls were limited to ones so surprising even keeper Jonny Bairstow wasn’t ready for them. England selectors like picking Ali at home, where he has played 32 Tests. Australia won’t mind if that continues.

Originally published as Australia’s middle order shows core strength to outmuscle England in first Test