"It can't be Joe Root and Dawid Malan every single time" - Michael Hussey criticizes England after yet another batting collapse in Ashes 2021
Former Australian batter Michael Hussey was critical of England after the visitors collapsed once more in Ashes 2021, this time in Melbourne on Sunday.
On the first day of the Boxing Day Test, England were bowled out for just 185 in the first innings. Skipper Joe Root typically looked a class apart with his sanguine 82-ball 50, but once again failed to carry on. No other batter even crossed the 40-run mark as every Australian bowler pocketed at least one wicket.
Speaking after the day's play, Hussey asserted that England needed more batters to stand up and take some of the burden off Root and Dawid Malan. Hussey told Cricbuzz:
"That's where England is falling down, I guess. They need more contributors. It can't be Joe Root and Dawid Malan every single time. They need other guys to stand up and unfortunately, that's been a problem for England for a period of time now."
Hussey found Root's innings on a difficult pitch 'beautiful' until his lazy poke outside the off-stump against Mitchell Starc got him out in the 33rd over. He noted that the non-conversion of his starts has been a vexing issue with the Englishman.
Hussey said:
"I thought Joe Root batted beautifully, he really did. He looked positive, he looked confident, he was timing the ball well. It was not an easy pitch to bat on. There was enough moment there... I feel for Joe Root, you know, he would have been so disappointed with the shot he played to get out. He did a lot of the hard work but couldn't go on with it. And unfortunately, that's been his problem here in Australian conditions. He's batted but been unable to convert those good starts into big hundreds."
Root, like he's been doing all year, is his team's top run-scorer this Ashes with 225 runs. Malan, who is second on the list with 202, was also dismissed after a well-made 66-ball 14, playing an avoidable poke outside the off-stump on the stroke of Lunch.
Chris Woakes is third with 105 runs, but he's not even playing in Melbourne. Even Aussie quick Starc has scored more runs than the rest of the England batters so far.
"It's like a dagger to the heart of any team" - Michael Hussey on Jos Buttler's wicket
Jos Buttler gone before tea.
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The series of poor shots didn't stop at Root and Malan. Wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler, who nearly became a hero in the last Test with his resilience, threw away his wicket just before Tea with an ungainly hoick against Nathan Lyon.
Hussey described the wicket as both a "dagger to the heart" of the team and an 'ugly' confidence breaker because of the kind of shot and its timing. Hussey said:
"You can see what he was trying to do. He wanted to be positive and play his shots that's where he plays his best cricket but he was beaten in the flight, he wanted to hit it over mid-on [but] because he didn't get to the pitch of the ball he bottom-hand drags it square of the wicket."
He added:
"It just looks ugly because of the way to get out and also the timing. It's like a dagger to the heart of any team. You are always looking for positives, looking to hold on for hope but when something like that happens, you just drop your head and it's hard to not get into a negative frame of mind. It was a bad dismissal at that time."
Australia raced to 61/1 in their first innings. They'll start the second day at 5:00 AM IST, 124 runs behind England's score.