Root and Starc magnificent on a wonderful first day at the Gabba

PL reports on a day when two veterans restored some sanity to the seires

Stumps: England 9-235 (Root 135no and Archer 32no).

Two men rose above the pack on the first day at the Gabba. Joe Root, at last, erased the statistical anomaly that had him without a century on Australian soil, while another old stager, Mitchell Starc, wrote himself into the record books with a display of fast bowling that suggests that he, like the Englishman, is still improving after more than 100 Tests.

Starc, who turns 36 in January, finished the day with 6-71 and now has 16 wickets from just three innings in this series. Bowling without his usual posse, he is tapping a rich vein of form dating back to that 6-9 in the last innings of the Caribbean tour.

He has now passed Wasim Akram as the most successful left-arm pace bowler in the history of the game.

Root’s 40th century in his 160th Test match takes him within one of Ricky Ponting and will be among the sweetest, given it comes in a country where he and the teams he has visited have suffered so much misfortune. It would be a hard heart that denied him this, especially given how hard the Covid Ashes were for the then England captain.

Root, who turns 35 in December, was still there at the end, he and the free-wheeling Jofra Archer putting on an undefeated 61-run partnership that frustrated the Australians, but at least meant they did not have to face a tricky period under lights had the innings ended earlier.

Most everything appeared to have gone England’s way in this series and Test.

Let’s list the advantages offered to the visitors by fate, design and Australia.

Injury to Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood has meant Australia is fielding its fourth, fifth and sixth choice seamers. No, really. Scott Boland (4th) and Brendan Doggett (5th) came in when injury struck Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. And, so, when Australia drops its spinner and loads up with seamers for this pink ball Test, Michael Neser (6th) is retrieved from the back of the cupboard where he’s been since playing his second Test match against the West Indies in December 2022.

Look, it is no knock on these men who are very capable bowlers, but Starc, Boland, Doggett and Neser do not bring the same gravitas as the four who bowled in the pink ball Test in Jamaica; Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins.

That third Test in the Caribbean was the last time Nathan Lyon did not play for Australia. Thursday marked the first time he has not been included in an Australian XI at home since 2012. A run of 69 consecutive home Tests was broken when selectors made the call.

The spinner was, understandably, upset. Selector George Bailey offered by way of public consolation that it was a “one-off” and he’d be back in the fold by Adelaide.

Lyon, who’d bowled two overs in Perth and one in his previous pink ball Test, sought distraction with a net session that was cut short when he was hit by a painful blow on the leg.

Perhaps the injury to Usman Khawaja should not be classified among the twists of fate (and lower spine) which had gone in England’s favour, after all, it was his understudy who won the match for Australia when the opener could not bat in the second innings. But, the decision to drop Lyon proves to be something which has favoured England, then it will need to be slotted into the self-harm by the hosts.

England have already forced the Australians to send down more overs (76) than they did in both innings of the first match (67).

When Smith, like an evasive minister, refused to offer support for the spinner on the eve of the match, it jarred. You heard him say it, or not say it, but it was hard to take it seriously.

Not playing a spinner in Australian Test matches had, until this moment in time, been considered unconstitutional.

If Shane Warne were alive …

There’d been rumours that such had been considered in Perth, where the question was asked: Do you really need a spinner against Bazball? Well, apparently not in a pink ball match where the team data centre workers inform us that a seamer outpoints a spinner.

That said, with only 3mm of grass on the Gabba wicket, this was, as was an interesting call and one that will be justified or condemned depending on the result.

Lyon was obviously not happy. Bailey conceded that the call was, as you’d expect, not well received by the veteran who’d recently signed off on a two-year contract.

“Don’t think he agreed with it, and that’s fine,” Bailey said.

“I think Beau Webster’s also in the same boat. That was heavily debated around whether (Josh) Inglis and Webster, Neser and Webster, all those were heavily debated.

“Nathan will disagree with the decision, and that’s perfectly OK. I think he disagreed with the decision in Jamaica, and that’s perfectly okay. I have no qualms about players feeling like they can impact the game. And the fact the matter is he could have.”

Later, Lyon confirmed Bailey’s impressions, telling Mel McLaughlin he was “absolutely filthy”.

And now to England and how it has made dealt with the opportunities that have come their way to their advantage.

The match began in the traditional manner.