Oh dear oh dear, I’m not looking forward to this one.
Day/night test, pink ball, the Gabba. This has a Mitch Starc masterclass in embarrassing us all over it doesn’t it?
The first test massively dampened my spirits for this series, to be in a pretty dominant position, and see it squandered was bad enough, but looking back, I don’t think it was a surprise.
The Aussies looked confident on that second day, they came into the ground knowing full well they would win that game, and win they did.
If they were confident during that first test, they will be certain of victory in the second. Everything about it lends itself to them. Do they have two openers? No, Do they have the bowling attack they would like? No, Does any of that matter to them at all? I don’t think so.
How they are going to set up I couldn’t tell you, it seems as though they may opt to open with Head and Weatherald, I don’t think this will bother them, especially after Heads heroics opening in Perth.
The other question is around Cummins, the face of Australian cricket, could he make his return? Original reports had him out for the second test, but Smith and the Aussies have been teasing the potential for a shock announcement at the toss in Brisbane, something that would send pangs of dread to English supporters stomachs.
That’s enough about the Aussies though, how are England looking? Bad, in all honesty.
They elected not to have any of their bats have a crack in the day night warmup game put on by CA, why? Well the conditions will differ from the Gabba, but surely it would be good to have some time in the middle?
In the first test, just one English batsmen faced more than 100 balls, Ollie pope. The rest weren’t even close. Getting to hit balls on a wicket against competitive bowling can’t have been a bad idea.
They decided not to, so here we are. England have one change to their team, and it’s an interesting one. Will Jacks has been brought in to replace the Injured Mark Wood.
Jacks, a batting allrounder, bowls half decent offies….he bowled pretty poor offies in the warmup game before the first test, but let’s forget about that for now.
His inclusion stinks of concern. He’s a very good bat, and will be slotting in at 8, but why pick a spinner for a pink ball test that is unlikely to get through the third day? Well they haven’t picked a spinner, they’ve picked a T20 bat, who might make a quick fire 40 with the tail as and when the middle order collapses.
I might seem a bit doom and gloom here, but I’ve watched England play test cricket enough to have a pretty decent idea of how this one could shape up. I think we have the talent to win, I don’t think we have the mindset.
This England team runs on confidence, in the last ashes at home, we came back from 2-0 down because we played well in the first two tests, giving the players all the confidence they needed to get back in the game. In the first test here though, we played well for 1 innings, I don’t think that’ll be enough.
I am willing to be proven wrong.
Please prove me wrong, I beg you.
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