England skipper Joe Root digs deep

Australia is sweating on the fitness of David Warner who did not take the field as England rose from their sick bed on the third day of the first Test.

Skipper Joe Root led England’s fightback on day three of the Gabba Test

Australia is sweating on the fitness of David Warner who did not take the field as England rose from their sick bed on the third day of the first Test.

The veteran opener was in so much pain after play on the second day from a blow to the ribs that a fracture was suspected. The team played it down in the morning, saying he had some soreness, but when he did not take the field, claimed it was bruising.

It is not unusual for cricket teams to play games with the nature of injuries. It will be an enormous blow if Warner, who battled injury to play just two Tests last summer, is unfit for the second Test in Adelaide.

Usman Khawaja, who narrowly missed selection in the first match, might find himself back in the opening spot should the injury prove serious.

Something curious appears to be going on with Josh Hazlewood also. The seamer opened the bowling and returned for a second spell, but was not handed the ball in the extended last session.

“Hoff’s fine,” Marnus Labuschagne maintained after the match. “We’re just making sure we’re prepared really well and there’s times at the Gabba where there’s not that many wickets that fall and we have just got to hold and rotate our bowlers well and got someone fresh.”

Warner may have thought he was not going to be needed again at lunch, but Australia will definitely bat again as the third day revealed a twist in the tail of a match that had only been going in one direction to that point.

England, who had been absent for much of the first two days of the match, rallied. Brilliant captain Joe Root showing just why his 2021 form has him sitting at the top of the batting ranks and Dawid Malan demonstrated the sort of composure that made him so good in the 2017-18 Ashes.

The batter had a calamitous fall off in form after that series and said that a few months ago he thought he may never play again.

Malan and Root batted with purpose and poise, exploiting the better batting conditions and working off the 278 first innings debt they’d accrued by the time Mark Wood took the 10th Australian wicket.

“I said to Rooty when we were on 30 or 40 I said I've really missed this, the Barmy Army, I’ve really missed someone trying to blast my head off and the crowd singing and all of that,” Malan said.

England trail by 58 with eight wickets in hand and the opposition possibly with some personnel issues.

In the morning Travis Head continued where he left off from the previous day and was 152 from 148 balls when he was dismissed before lunch.

England needed somebody to stand up in Brisbane and it was, predictably, the skipper who speaks quietly but bats with the sort of assurance you expect from the number one ranked batter in the world.

Root has six centuries from 12 Test outings in 2021 but has never reached three figures in Australia where his average is 38 compared to a career average over 50. Malan scored three 50s and a century in 2017-18 and was the visitors’ highest scorer in that series.

The pair’s undefeated 159-run partnership ensures that Australia will have to bat again to win the match _ possibly even save it. In 2010-11 England faced a similar first-innings deficit but went on to score over 500 in their second innings for the loss of one wicket.

Visiting captain Andrew Strauss scored a century and his successor Alistair Clark a double in an innings that saw them hold on for an unlikely draw at a ground where all visiting sides struggle. England went on to win that series but in two subsequent visits have not won a single Test match.

Nathan Lyon, meanwhile, has been in the nervous 390s for the best part of two years and still can’t get the final wicket

Rory Burns indicated there are some scars from his golden duck on day one by opting not to face the first ball of England’s second innings. Some opening combinations rotate the task as a matter of course but Burns has taken it 260 times in 264 first class innings and this was the first time in 41 Test innings he has watched the first ball from the bowler’s end.

He saw off Mitchell Starc, but couldn’t hide for long and was out gloving one from Pat Cummins to Alex Carey when 13.

England’s rally came as the team’s critics began to sharpen their knives and look for somebody to blame.

While Root’s ability with the bat has never been debated his captaincy is attracting bad reviews, with England winning just one of its last nine Test matches.

Ian Botham was still questioning the decision to bat.

“You come to Australia and it has been raining in Brisbane,” he said on Channel 7. “There’s been lots of rain, humidity. You are playing the Aussies in their fortress, at the Gabba. I couldn’t believe it when I got to the ground.’’