Joe Root has rued the continued mistakes made by the England batting line-up as they suffered a 275-run loss against Australia in the Adelaide Ashes Pink Ball Test to go 0-2 down.
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There are several factors that have let England down in the Ashes 2021 contests against Australia. The poor call to leave out James Anderson and Stuart Broad on a Brisbane green top with overhead skies is the first major blunder. The second was batting collapses. In Brisbane, they were shot out for 147 in the first innings while in the second, they collapsed by losing eight wickets for 74 runs. The pattern repeated in Adelaide.
From 150/2, they lost eight wickets for 86 runs to give Australia a big lead. The second innings was no better as the top order once again crumbled. This has been the situation with England in Australia. At the same venue four years ago, England was bowled out for 215 in the first innings. In the second innings, they lost seven wickets for 64 runs to lose that match by 121 runs. In 2017/18, they lost the series 0-4. Now, repetition is on the cards.
Joe Root, in the post-match presentation, rued the fact that England did not learn the lessons from the 2017 debacle in Adelaide. “It’s disappointing because we made the same mistakes that we made four years ago. We could have bowled better and should have batted better,” Root said.
For Jos Buttler, the Adelaide Test was a mixed one. He was brilliant in patches but poor in some. He took three brilliant catches but also dropped some crucial chances, including Marnus Labuschagne on 85. With the bat, he has endured a torrid time, getting scores of 39,26, and 0 in the first three innings.
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In the second innings, he helped England fight in a big way. His rearguard consumed 207 balls and he stitched a fifty-plus stand with Chris Woakes that lasted over 30 overs. It is this fightback that has given Root and England some positivity heading into the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
“That’s the attitude we needed to harness through the whole game. I feel we competed in patches, but we need to fight the whole game. That’s what is needed to win here. The attitude today was brilliant. We just need to do more of it. I’m confident that we have all that we need to win here. Just need to stop repeating the same mistakes. We have to get through that first 20 minutes and then go greedy, need to leave better as well. Need to also manage certain passages of play better,” Root stated.
In the Ashes contests so far, England has bowled out Australia only once in the series. In Adelaide, Australia declared twice. With the ball, the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood did not undermine their attack. Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser, along with Cameron Green stepped up to the plate to take all 20 England wickets again.
England, on the other hand, has seen their batting and bowling implode. No one has scored a century yet in the series. Apart from Dawid Malan and Root, the other batters have struggled. Stuart Broad and James Anderson have looked off-color, while Joe Root has taken wickets as well. The sight of Ollie Robinson bowling off-spin further compounded their resources. Root, though, had the belief that England could turn it around in Melbourne.
“When we took the ball in hand, I don’t think we bowled the right lengths, we needed to bowl fuller. As soon as we did that in the second innings, we made it harder for them,” Root stated.
The third Test begins on Boxing Day in Melbourne. With England 0-2 down and only six days of a break in between, the chances of them wresting the Urn away from Australia now look bleak.
