Who said what - Top 5 expert reactions to England's collapse in Lord's Ashes Test
England's style of batting, also known as the 'Bazball' ideology, has come under severe scrutiny this Ashes after some questionable batting in the series so far. However, their batting collapse in the first innings has baffled a number of cricket experts and former cricketers as well.
After letting Australia score 416 in their first innings, England seemed to be in a great position at 188/1 in reply. Australia had lost their world-class spinner Nathan Lyon to injury and were just down to three pure pacers and the all-round ability of Cameron Green and Travis Head.
The visitors then decided to change their plan to bowling short and surprisingly, the hosts fell right into the trap. From 188/1, England first stumbled to 222/4 and that brought the Aussies right back into the game.
With the partnership between Harry Brook and Ben Stokes, the hosts would have hoped for a fightback on Day 3, resuming at 278/4. But what followed was some more questionable shot selection as they lost their last six wickets for 47 runs, getting bundled out for 325.
This gave Australia a lead of 91 runs and they are in the driver's seat in the second Test at the time of writing. On that note, let's take a look at what some of the experts had to say about the hosts' performance with the bat:
#5 Glenn McGrath
Former Australian legend Glenn McGrath believes Australia have found the weakness of a few of the opposition batters, especially young Harry Brook. Here's what he told BBC about Brook:
"He’s (Brook) going to cop a fair bit more, if you look unsettled and don’t like the short ball, you’ll get it more.”
#4 Ricky Ponting
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting in a way echoed Glenn McGrath's thoughts. He feels that the short-ball ploy will continue with the England batters not just in this Test or the series, but also till the time some of them hang up their boots. Here's what he had to say on The Ashes Podcast on Sky Sports Cricket:
"The way England have tried to combat it (short-ball ploy) and be ultra-aggressive hasn't worked. And it has not just given Australia a sniff in this game. They have shown some cracks in some of the batters that they will keep not just for the rest of the series, but the rest of their careers."
#3 Michael Vaughan
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan was absolutely disappointed with the way the batters applied themselves during the short-ball barrage from the Australians.
He feels the hosts had no need to suddenly throw the kitchen sink at everything despite being 188/1 at one point. Here's what he said on BBC Test Match Special:
“For the first 182 runs, I saw an England side that went out to bat and play with great entertainment because they played proper cricket strokes. What came after that for the next hour or so was absolute stupidity.
"That is not entertaining, I’m sorry, that is stupid Test match cricket and Australia will be delighted with that method because when the ball is not swinging over the next few weeks, guess what they are going to do."
#2 Kevin Pietersen
Former England batter Kevin Pietersen wasn't too harsh on the batters for their short-ball debacle as he claimed that he himself used to play attacking cricket. He shared how he once decided to defend a short ball and realized it didn't come naturally to him.
Here's what Pietersen told Sky Sports:
“(On England’s short ball problem) I played the way that they played [Bazball] and I saw the best form of defense being attack. Every single time it happened it me, against Australia [in Ashes], with Morne Morkel at Leeds.
"Brett Lee in 2005, that’s when I started. When he bowled at the speed of light and certainly, I tried, defended one, it flew over Gully and I said, ‘I don’t think I can do this anymore.'”
#1 Geoffrey Boycott
Arguably the most hard-hitting remark was made by former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott, who also was in attendance when Harry Brook played an appalling hook and was caught at deepish covers by Pat Cummins.
Boycott covered his face with his hand in disappointment and the picture instantly became viral on social media. The former cricketer quoted one of the tweets and described England's approach as 'batting without brains'. Here's what he wrote:
"Yes it does, batting without brains. Chatting to my captain Mike Brearley"
Yes it does, batting without brains. Chatting to my captain Mike Brearley twitter.com/charleso78/sta…
The hosts have an uphill task of getting Australia bowled out as soon as possible and then chase down whatever they get.