Former Australia opener Simon Katich believes that England’s openers are way too inexperienced to stand a chance against a formidable Australia attack. In the ongoing Ashes series, Australia has been all over England as the visitors struggled in all three departments of the game.
The story of openers is no different for England. So far in 6 innings in this series, only one time when the partnership of England openers could reach double digits. In the Boxing day Test, England brought Zak Crawley in but results didn’t change a bit as the Kent batter could manage only 12 & 5 in the third test.
Rory Burns scored 51 runs in his 4 innings while Haseeb Hameed added only 65 runs in his 6 innings so far. They have been criticized from all corners. However, Simon Katich showed some sympathy for the visiting openers.
“Yesterday (Sunday) they were both very inexperienced, they’re both youngsters finding their feet at Test level, it’s not easy,” Siman Katich spoke to sen.com.au.
Katich also raised questions over their technique and temperament to succeed in Australia. For England, skipper Joe Root and Dawid Malan are the only ones who put up some resistance against Pat Cummins & Co. as they scored 3 & 2 fifties respectively.
“They’ve been exposed by a very good Australian attack, they’re coming up in conditions that they haven’t really experienced before, so that’s something that’s caused them issues, England’s (in)ability to leave a lot more balls.
“Particularly in a bouncy wicket because as soon as you start playing away from yourself in these conditions with the extra pace and bounce you get into trouble, that’s what we’ve seen throughout the series,” he added further.
“They’ve (England cricketers) fed the slips and (wicketkeeper) Alex Carey… technically there are some issues with their concentration and letting balls go around off stump,” he stated.
Simon Katich, who scored 4188 runs in 56 Tests career, had been part of four Ashes series from 2001 to 2010.
At the close of the second day’s play, England is on the verge of another defeat as they lost 4 wickets for 31 runs in 2nd innings and are still trailing by 51 runs.