England bowler Stuart Broad has shown disappointment over England’s batting performance in the Ashes 2021-22 so far. On the third day morning of the Adelaide Test, England responded well with a century partnership between captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan but like the second innings at Brisbane, once this partnership was broken, the rest of the line-up collapsed like a pack of cards.
Stuart Broad, who is playing his 150th Test match, believes that it’s tough to start for a new batter so batters need to make count for their starts.
“As professional players, mistakes are OK if you learn from them, but we have collapsed three times in a row now. In Australia, it can be hard to start but when you get past the first 30 balls, you must make things count and we’ve not managed to do that yet,” Stuart Broad wrote in his ‘Dailymail’ column.
“Pat Cummins being ruled out of the second Test could be the Glenn McGrath 2005 moment of this Ashes”
Broad also added that Cummins missing out for the second could have been England’s 2005 Ashes moment but the middle order let them down. Notable that in the 2005 Ashes series, Glenn McGrath missed the second Test as he injured his ankle on the morning of the test match which turned out to be a turning point of the series.
“I thought Pat Cummins being ruled out of the second Test through pandemic protocols had the potential to be the Glenn McGrath 2005 moment of this Ashes. One-nil down, the opposition’s best bowler misses the game in freak circumstances. But for similarities to McGrath standing on the ball at Edgbaston 16 years ago to be retained, we had to bat first,” he wrote.
However, he is still quite optimistic about England’s chances to save this match as he believes that it would be difficult for them to make a comeback after 0-2 down.
“Now, we need to hold the game as long as possible — although the ball is turning, it’s not misbehaving for the seamers in the slightest, so can we bat four sessions? Absolutely. Can we save it? Yes. We just need two or three batters to be heroic. It would be a long way back from 2-0 down when we need to win the series to reclaim the urn and we haven’t fired with bat or ball yet.” he added further.
Notable that England hasn’t won a Test Match in Australia since Jan 2011. In the 2013-14 tour, Australia whitewashed them with a 5-0 margin and in the 2017-18 tour they managed to draw just one game at Melbourne, thanks to the marathon effort by Alastair Cook (244*).