England’s bowling attack lacking a swing bowler to expose pink-ball conditions in Brisbane

England’s 140km/h pace attack was supposed to blast Australia out of the Ashes. Yet four days in, it is threatening to implode. Simon Wilde examines an issue which is set to drag on.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face and four days into this Ashes series, England is already sporting a fat lip and several missing teeth.

Its Great Bowling Plan – attack Australia with the highest pace the tourists could lay their hands on – has been turned against them.

After the opening day in Perth, there was general excitement about the way England’s bowlers started.

And they did look good – they surprised Australia with their aggression. But Australia dusted themselves down and regrouped fast, helped by the need to rejig their order after Usman Khawaja’s injury, and a counter-strategy launched by Travis Head’s extraordinary century in the first Test was refined to near perfection at the Gabba.

They used England’s pace to their advantage by clipping and steering, cutting and upper-cutting, relentlessly. The areas behind square on both sides became their principal scoring zones: by the time Australia’s score reached 3-266, 108 runs had come behind the wicket on the off side and 75 behind to leg. The pattern did not change thereafter.

England failed to capitalise on an impressive lead early. Picture: DAVID GRAY / AFP

Though he was not alone, Brydon Carse, the man England had identified as their short-ball enforcer, bore the brunt of the assault. He had an extraordinary day, cruel in its brutality, but also heroic in his desire not to let down his captain and good mate Ben Stokes.

His opening spell included the wicket of Head off a miscue, but he still got battered for nine runs an over. He went away. Came back. Got battered again. Came back. Battered again.

His third spell was cut short after an over costing 17, at which point three sixes and six fours had come off his bowling behind square.

That might have been it, but Stokes brought him back at the other end and Carse’s luck changed. First Cameron Green was bowled, backing away trying to carve through the off side, then Alex Carey chipped to gully and Ben Duckett spilt the chance. Two balls after that, Steve Smith fetched yet another short ball round to backward square leg, where Will Jacks took a sensational leaping catch with his right hand.

By the end of the night, though, Carse was off the field having hurt a hand attempting a catch at cover, and nursing the fifth-most expensive economy rate for England among bowlers to concede 100 runs. His short balls got even shorter in his final spell as he sought to frustrate Carey and Michael Neser, but were called for wides.

At no stage did Stokes appear to ask him to pitch it up. He did not appear to want to. It was not apparent that anyone was thinking clearly enough – or thinking at all – to change tack, so shocking was the implosion of England’s bowling tactics.

Australia’s tempo of 5.17 runs per over was the fastest any team has made a score of more than 300 in the first innings – and second fastest overall – of a Test against England.

Jofra Archer reacts to a dropped chance off his bowling.

Brydon Carse was expensive.

Jofra Archer faced similar frustrations to Carse, seeing catches put down and Smith upper-cutting one of his fastest balls over the rope for six.

Tellingly, when Stokes bowled Josh Inglis in the 64th over it was only the 21st ball of the innings that would have hit the stumps. If it loses this match, questions will be asked about England’s obsession with bowling short, but also its decision to assemble an attack built with one strategy in mind.

The ball has not swung a lot in this series, but it has swung at times, as Mitchell Starc, the best bowler on either side, has demonstrated for Australia, and it is not necessary for every ball to swing for batsmen’s thinking to be affected. England have lost a number of wickets to Starc through playing at balls they feared would swing in. Australia’s batsmen have no such concerns: they can swing with impunity against this England line-up because there has been precious little deviation through the air.

The new pink ball generally swings under lights, something we have not yet seen, but may see before this game is out.

England have pensioned off their best swing bowlers. James Anderson was told last year he was surplus to requirements, and Chris Woakes was informed that England would be looking elsewhere in the future. It was accepted that Woakes would be unfit for this tour after his shoulder injury during the Oval Test against India, but he was back in action in the Dubai T20 tournament on Thursday and nipped out two early wickets.

English cricket is in danger of losing this type of player because conventional swing has gone out of fashion as a new generation focuses on the wobble-seam delivery that is thought to have added value because it transcends conditions.

Who are the best young swing bowlers in England? Answers on a postcard please. England’s mistake for this tour may be preparing as though conditions will be the same across Australia, regardless of the venue.

Smith referred to this before the series when he suggested that all-out pace may not be the answer on Australian pitches, saying: “(Medium-pace) nibblers can be quite tricky.”

And look at the attack Australia chose here, with Neser brought in at the expense of the spinner Nathan Lyon specifically for his local knowledge and ability to swing the pink ball. Neser is not high pace and neither is Brendan Doggett.

This Australia attack, in fact, looks very like the kind of attack England have just turned their backs on.

Originally published as England’s bowling attack lacking a swing bowler to expose pink-ball conditions in Brisbane