Ashes 2021-22: Australia push England to select Jack Leach for Adelaide
One English bowler copped a hammering by Australia’s batsman in Brisbane – but the locals insist they aren’t joking when they say he’s an essential selection for Adelaide.
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After belting Jack Leach out of the Ashes in Brisbane, Australia is now telling England that it would make no sense not to pick him for the Adelaide Test.
In a tone that sounds very similar to a hungry man inviting a turkey around for Christmas dinner, Australian star and Adelaide aficionado Travis Head declared a spinner is an essential selection for Thursday’s pink ball showdown.
England captain Joe Root admits his team has some massive decisions to make on their bowling line-up for the second Test, with the pressure on to recall swing kings James Anderson and Stuart Broad following their controversial exclusion at the Gabba.
There is talk that finger spinner Leach’s position in the attack has become untenable after he was feasted on by the likes of Head, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne, but whether it’s mental disintegration or local knowledge – Australia has warned England against dropping a spinner and going with a five-pronged pace attack under lights.
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Asked whether spin was vital in Adelaide, South Australian captain Head said it’s a non-negotiable and used Nathan Lyon to illustrate his point.
“Huge role. I think we’ve seen it here for a long period of time. Lloyd pope for South Australia has spun the ball, I’ve spun the ball every now and then which is rare … whenever we play Nathan here for NSW he’s almost been near impossible to hit,” said Head.
“One with how consistent (Lyon) is but also the bounce and turn he can get from this wicket. He’s going to love coming here.
“We’ve already spoken about the thatchiness of the grass, the way the ball can grip.
“ … It’s going to offer him great spin throughout the whole game, we won’t see it change. We might get some foot holes late day four or five but traditionally the ball has spun off the straight from day one, so I think he’s hugely in the game.”
Root gave little away in his press conference about team selection, but did offer some hope to Leach by making the point that two of the three sessions are in the day time and the pitch looks flat.
England’s other option is to drop Leach but pick reserve spinner Dom Bess.
Chris Woakes is almost certain to make way, while England will have to make a call on how the likes of Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson have pulled up from their toil in Brisbane’s hot sun following a limited preparation.
Whatever the decision is on the spinner, Australia is expecting to finally come face-to-face with Broad, because no one was more surprised at his mysterious omission in Brisbane than the three left-handers in Australia’s top order.
Head, Warner and Marcus Harris were given nightmares by Broad in the 2019 Ashes in the UK, and have done plenty of homework on the England spearhead which they can now put to use in Adelaide.
“Yeah not just on Broady, but I think in general batting to around the wicket bowling,” said Head.
“Personally I’ve worked really hard on batting against bowling around the wicket.
“We got found out a little bit in England, personally and maybe as a team. I know talking from my personal experience the last six months I’ve gone away and worked really hard at that, how I line the ball up, where I try to play it.
“You do your homework on Broady, he’s a fantastic bowler he’s going to be challenging here with the pink ball but also in your own batting technique you need to get through other blokes who are similar.
“I’ve worked extremely hard at that and hopefully it pays dividends this week.”
‘WRITE HIM OFF AT YOUR PERIL’: POMS ISSUE ADELAIDE WARNING
By: Ben Dorries and Nic Savage
And things just keep getting worse for the Poms.
England’s cricketers have been fined 100 per cent of their match fees and penalised five World Test Championship points for slow over-rates during the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
On Saturday evening, the ICC confirmed that match referee David Boon had penalised England 100 per cent of their match fee for falling five overs short of the targets after adjusting for time allowances.
The tourists were also penalised five World Test Championship points for the misdemeanour – under the competition’s playing conditions, teams are docked one point for each over they fall short of the targets.
Earlier, under-fire Joe Root was forced to defend his Ashes captaincy but went on the attack by declaring Australia should write off Headingley hero Ben Stokes at their own peril.
One of England’s many problems at the Gabba was that buccaneering allrounder Ben Stokes was a passenger and failed to fire in his highly-anticipated return to Test cricket.
Stokes scored 5 and 14 and took 0-65, often bowling at half pace and hobbling around the field at times as he looked well short of peak fitness.
Root insisted that Stokes, England’s miracle man of Headingley in 2019, would be fit for the second Test in Adelaide and warned the Aussies to watch out.
“You write Ben Stokes off at your own peril,” a defiant Root said.
“He will be desperate to get back into this series and have a big say in how it all turns out.
“Like a lot of the guys, he has not had much cricket, his last game was right at the start of our (English) summer.
“It was always going to be a challenging week for him physically.
“To come back in and expect him to win the game, of course he is capable of doing it, but the fact he hasn’t and the fact he has now got a game under his belt, I’m sure he will be wanting to have a big say in Adelaide.”
During a diabolical day where England lost 8-74 inside a session in a first Test capitulation, Root wore some verbal barbs from Ashes legend Ian Botham.
Botham said on Channel 7 commentary that Root had blundered by batting first on a juicy Gabba pitch and insisted England fans were rightly puzzled about the Gabba omissions of fast bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
Despite being bowled out for 147 in the first innings, Root insisted he had made the right decision at the toss.
“I look back at the toss and I think I would have done the same thing, speaking to Pat (Cummins) he would have done the same thing and batted first,” Root said.
“Australian exploited those conditions a little bit but it (the pitch) did quicken up and we showed that we could create chances that second day and as we saw today the pitch did start misbehaving a little more.
“You look at getting even 250 runs in that first innings and the game looks very different altogether.
“In terms of selection we wanted a balanced attack and we wanted to be able to change the game and we went with the spinner, credit to Australia they took on Leachy (spinner Jack Leach) who had to bowl on that wicket at its worst (for a spinner).
“But it’s nice to know that Stuart Broad and James Anderson are fit and fresh and ready to go (if selected for the second Test in Adelaide).”
Root also came out swinging by insisting this England side would not go the way of England sides in the past in Australia.
England has not fallen behind and then gone on to win an away Ashes series in 66 years but Root says if they go down, they will not surrender meekly.
“I think the most important thing is after that first innings and the way that we played, it would have been very easy to go out there and look like rabbits in headlights and think the game is over,” Root said.
“We showed good character, good fight and skill as well to get a position we were still in the game.
“There were periods of this game that we showed that we are more than capable of getting on top of Australia, we just didn’t do it for long enough.”
And things just keep getting worse for the Poms.
England’s cricketers have been fined 100 per cent of their match fees and penalised five World Test Championship points for slow over-rates during the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
On Saturday evening, the ICC confirmed that match referee David Boon had penalised England 100 per cent of their match fee for falling five overs short of the targets after adjusting for time allowances. The tourists also penalised five World Test Championship points for the misdemeanour – under the competition’s playing conditions, teams are docked one point for each over they fall short of the targets.
‘GUTLESS MOVE’: IS TOP POM RUNNING SCARED?
It could be a very long and a very short Ashes tour for timid England opener Rory Burns who is going so bad he is running scared and refusing to take strike.
Long – as in the remaining six weeks of the tour Down Under may feel like six years.
Short – as in a bare fraction of that time could be spent doing what he is actually here for … batting.
Most Ashes tours need a fall guy, a player who cops extra focus and becomes the brunt of jokes and the embodiment of the dejected and derided touring team.
After falling for an infamous golden duck on the first ball of the Ashes, Burns was looking for somewhere to hide in the middle of the Gabba as he tried to avoid a king pair in the second dig.
Burns chose the non-strikers end as Haseeb Hameed was sent straight into the fire of Mitchell Starc’s first ball.
In extraordinary scenes, it was the first time in Burns’ Test career (other than when a nightwatchman was at the crease) that he avoided facing the first ball of the innings.
Burns has opened the batting 264 times in first-class cricket and this was just the fourth time he hadn’t faced the first ball.
He was always going to cop it from the Australians for that gutless move but it didn’t look like he had lasted long anyway when umpire Paul Reiffel’s finger shot up to give Burns out lbw on Starc’s sixth delivery.
The under-fire England opener opted to review and it was the first time he got anything right during the Gabba Test.
Replays showed it was going over the top of middle stump and Burns was spared the ignominy of an Ashes pair by the DRS technology.
However it only prolonged the inevitable as Burns (13) was soon gone when he was caught behind off Aussie captain Pat Cummins who produced a peach of a delivery.
Burns, who also spilt a sitter slips catch, has had as much of an impact on the Gabba Test as Mr Burns from The Simpsons or former Australian opener Joe Burns.
But he is far from England’s only problem.
Spinner Jack Leach (1-102 off 13 overs) was slaughtered by the Aussies and as the great Ricky Ponting put it, Leach brought up his own (bowling) century “12 balls quicker than (Travis) Head.”
Larrikin former England spinner Phil Tufnell has no doubt the Poms threw Leach a “hospital pass” when they picked the mild-mannered tweaker ahead of Stuart Broad on a Gabba greentop.
Tufnell was far from surprised that Leach copped a hammering.
“He’s England’s best available spinner, but he shouldn’t be playing,” Tufnell told the BBC.
“Stuart Broad should have been playing instead of Jack Leach.
“I wasn’t surprised they targeted him whatsoever.
“He got a little bit of the rough end of the stick – to be slung in on a green top in Brisbane.
“He got thrown a bit of a hospital pass in my book.”
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