The Aussies are kidding themselves if they think they can persist with Usman Khawaja after what transpired in the eight-wicket win over England in the first Test.
Whether his untimely back injury was caused by bad luck, too much time on the golf course or old age, it caused mayhem for the Aussie top order in the first innings and opened the door for a solution to the team’s long-running problem in the second.
Travis Head simply has to stay as an opener after his blistering brilliance broke the hearts, tactics and spirits of the Bazballers in Perth.
After getting skittled by a Jofra Archer scorcher on day one, Jake Weatherald showed enough in the second innings to suggest he can make the grade at Test level.
Khawaja is at the other end of his international career – with end being the operative word.
His measly effort of two from six deliveries in the first innings ended with him nicking a ball too fast for his ageing 38-year-old reflexes, a scene which has been played out several times over the past 12 months.
Khawaja’s form slump now stretches to 44 innings in which he has averaged 32.7 and made just one century during those 23 Tests, a double ton on a tame Galle pitch in January.
What should be happening is Head adding Tests to the ODI and T20 format where he already opens with the unlucky Beau Webster recalled and Cameron Green bumped up the order to five.
Josh Inglis is another option to slot into the middle order but Webster deserves to be given another chance, which would also alleviate the pressure on Green to be a fifth bowling option and mean he can concentrate more on his batting after back surgery.
And the other option is to bring in another specialist opener – Matt Renshaw cracked 112 for Queensland on Sunday in a Sheffield Shield day-nighter.
But what is much more likely to happen given the history of the player-friendly selection panel is that Khawaja will be given yet another chance to suddenly recapture his form even though pretty much all evidence about that happening is to the contrary.
Aussies lack patience with bat
Much has been made about England’s poor tactics with the bat but Australia also blundered badly on day one.
Head’s first-innings dismissal when he chipped a Ben Stokes half-tracker to mid-on was a shocker but when you can bounce back with a 69-ball match-winning ton, that can be excused.
With the Aussies teetering at 6-83, they should have been shutting up shop to get to stumps.
As they should have remembered from 12 months prior on the same ground, the pitch was nowhere near as treacherous on day two.
After 17 wickets fell on day one against India in the corresponding Test of 2024, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood batted 18 overs together on the second day in a sign of the becalmed nature of the surface before the Indians then piled up an insurmountable lead.
Survival should have been the only thing on their mind but instead Alex Carey and Starc hurried along at a run-a-ball like it was the end of a limited-overs fixture where there was no alternative but to try to keep up with the required run rate.
Starc threw his wicket away with a slog across the line and Carey recklessly stepped back to a short ball and guided it to the fielder on the deep third boundary who had been placed there for exactly that shot.
They were lucky that England saw their cavalier approach and said you aint seen nothin’ yet.
England’s tactics a recipe for disaster
Batting for just 67 overs across two innings of a Test is not revolutionary, it’s an embarrassment.
From an almost unbeatable position, England’s zealous devotion to their attack at all costs mantra cost them a Test victory.
Not your standard match. An Ashes Test. In a country where they haven’t won since 2011. A result that would have given them a huge confidence boost and a red-hot chance to steal the little urn away from Australian clutches.
But now they head to Brisbane with their tails between their legs facing the prospect of needing to win three of the next four matches against a team which looks like being boosted by the return of the world’s best all-round bowler in Aussie captain Pat Cummins.
Brendon McCullum has predictably said they will not be changing their attacking blueprint and the live by the sword mentality will mean their Ashes hopes will be dying by their swords, probably off the outside edge when they try to smash difficult deliveries to the boundary.
Ian Botham, who said their preparation “borders on arrogance”, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain have tried to warn them about the shortsightedness of their “damn the torpedoes” strategy but the Bazball cult does not invite or listen to contrary opinions from outside the compound.
Pace drop a huge concern
England’s pace aces Jofra Archer and Mark Wood were noticeably down on speed in the second innings.
Fast bowlers need more than 30-odd overs to regenerate after putting their bodies through searing spells – another piece of folly in the Bazball batting approach.
Archer and Wood were hovering in the 145-152km/h range on day one but they were in the low 140s and, Archer in particular, in the middling 130s on day two.
After taking 2-11 from nine overs of top quality on day one, Archer went for 45 in his eight wicketless overs in the second dig.
Wood failed to strike in both innings, leaking 23 runs in three wayward overs during Head’s century, and could be getting the chop for Josh Tongue at the Gabba for the pink-ball second Test.
Spinners not extinct but an endangered species
Nathan Lyon bowled only two overs for the match while England did not even take a specialist spinner into the contest at Perth.
Joe Root was smacked for 12 off an over of off-spin in garbage time when the result was a foregone conclusion.
Lyon was dropped for the final Test in Jamaica in what proved to be a prescient selection when Scott Boland ended up taking a hat-trick in his place.
He was off the field during the second innings after copping a few body blows while batting but even if he was available, Steve Smith was unlikely to throw him the ball on the seamer’s paradise.
The question now is needed in Brisbane for the day-nighter?
If Cummins is cleared to return from his back problem ahead of schedule, Lyon could be the bowler missing out after Boland bounced back to his best in the Optus Stadium second innings and Brendan Doggett bagged an impressive five wickets in his debut match.
The ICC’s lack of punishment for captains dawdling through the over rates further threatens the role of the spinner.
There were just 72 overs bowled on day one in Perth with 69.2 on day two. The quality of the spectacle was top notch but the quantity of overs keeps getting lower.
Starc the standout
Head could have quite easily been handed player of the match honours for his magnificent innings, blasting a ton on a pitch that had befuddled every other batter.
But giving the award to Starc was the right option.
In the absence of Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, he carried the Australian attack on day one when Boland was overpitching, Doggett was making his debut and Lyon was not required on the seam-friendly surface.
He is now just four wickets away from overtaking Pakistan legend Wasim Akram (415) as the most prolific left-armer in Test history.
Akram played 104 matches during his illustrious career while the Gabba clash will be Starc’s 102nd in the baggy green cap so he is all but certain to overtake him in fewer Tests.
Remarkably, the two best bowling performances of the 35-year-old’s career have been in his last two matches – his 6-9 against the West Indies in Kingston was his high watermark until he took 7-58 to destroy England on Friday.
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