Australia and Cummins could not have asked for a perfect start. First Australian bowler to captain the side, a side that had been in turmoil just before the start of the series, Cummins must have certainly felt the pressure. He must have hoped for a decent morning with a couple of wickets if they were bowling or around 60 runs with just one wicket down if they were batting. However, what transpired on day one was something Cummins would not even have wished in his dream. The Ashes day one Gabba.
Cummins lost the toss and must have mentally prepared himself for a day long of chasing the ball. He would have wanted all of his bowlers to hit their strides quickly and they did. Spectacularly. England lost 4 with next to nothing on the board. It included their main players, Root & Stokes. It has become a serious problem for England that if Root fails, the rest of the batting order caves in too. Suddenly, losing the toss did not really matter. Absolutely, none of the English batsman were able to play a couple of sessions. Hameed & Pope did threaten to nullify the early advantage but they were always against the eight ball. Buttler counterattacked but it could last only for awhile. The scorecard at the end of the day will make any English supporter to expect the worst over the next 5 games.
As for Cummins, this was more than a perfect start for his captaincy. England bowled out on the first day and a self-haul of 5 wickets. Fairy tales may even be real.
Batting first wasn’t the problem
As for England, well the day could not have gone any worse. Winning the toss and batting first was not the problem. As Ollie Pope said after the press conference, ‘I wouldn’t look too much at the toss we just had to execute in the first couple of hours of the game. We had the quality in the side to score the runs we needed.
The problem was with application. England batsmen were nervous. Nervous because of the previous experiences at the Gabba. A fortress that have proved very hard for England to crack. Nonetheless, the English batsmen must have applied themselves better. Rory Burns walked right across to what was essentially a full ball on the legs. He was so far across that his right leg was well outside the off-stump. As a result, he missed the ball completely.
Burns and Hameed are good at playing time. If only these two had batted atleast the first hour if not the first session though without scoring that many runs, things would have been much better for England. Hameed batted till the end of the session but Burns opened up the other end and Australia just cashed in. England must remember that this is not a sprint. It is a marathon. The more you bat, the more miles on the legs of the Aussie bowlers. Eventually, it will all come down to who among the teams are the fittest. This is exactly what England failed to do on day one.
England left out Stuart Broad from the team and Anderson was anyway not slated to play. Broad anyway never really had any impact in Australia as his career statistics suggest. An average of 37 is something that will keep any bowler out of the team.
England will just have to look at India in Australia last year
England must not worry. Whatever happened has happened. This cannot be changed. England do not have to search elsewhere for inspiration. All they have to do is cast their minds to these shores and think of what India accomplished. India did not start well at Adelaide and were bowled out for 36. It was a disaster from which any team would have found difficult to come back but India did. Not only that they played exceptional cricket with their 4th choice team and went onto win the series. This is inspiration enough.
All that England will have to do now is ensure that the game goes well into the 5th day. Do not throw in the towel. Do not feel defeatist. They must ensure that Australia do not pile up a huge score. They must ensure that they are in the game all the time and when they bat for the 2nd time, they must target to bat atleast 150 overs. England may still lose the game but would have ensured that the Aussies are kept in the field for a lot longer than they would have wanted. For that, Root must tell Burns, Hameed & Malan to forget about runs and just play for a long as they possibly can. Afterall, this is a 5 test series.
For the sake of the series, let us hope England do not succumb easily.