England vs Australia, Lord’s Test, Day 4 Talking Points, Bazball bouncers, Usman Khawaja, cricket news

Day four of the Lord’s Test descended into chaos, with England replicating the short-ball strategy Australia employed in the previous innings — but taking it to the absolute extreme.

After the clouds parted on Saturday morning, England’s seamers struggled with the old ball on the benign pitch. Subsequently, captain Ben Stokes abandoned the slips cordon, spread the field and instructed his four quicks to drop short — and it paid dividends.

Australia lost 3-10 in a dramatic 34-ball passage of play, with Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Travis Head all falling the bouncers. England’s bowlers persisted with cross-seam deliveries at the body, and the two-paced pitch’s variable bounce proved challenging to tame.

The visitors lost 8-92 in 40 overs after England started dropping short, with all eight dismissals coming from bouncers. According to Sky Sports, 98 per cent of deliveries during the afternoon session had been classified as “short balls”.

According to CricViz, just 10 deliveries landed on a good length or fuller in the entire session.

England had essentially ditched the ‘Bazball’ philosophy of prioritising entertainment — because there was nothing entertaining about the blatant ploy.

“I’m finding this hard to watch,” former England captain Andrew Strauss said on Sky Sports commentary.

“It’s just not a great advert for cricket in my mind.”

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor described it as “dull, boring cricket”, branding the “bounceathon” as “not interesting”.

“The concern the game has is if the pitches are slow, like this and fairly good for batting, this is how the players are going to play the game,” Taylor said on Sky Sports commentary.

“You don’t mind seeing it for a short period, but the last thing you would want is this to become the norm and we see hours and hours of this.”

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the strategy, it’s been incredibly effective — Australia claimed four top-order wickets with bouncers during the first innings.

“When you see this tactic employed so successfully, it makes you think, ‘Why don’t people do this all time?’ because it seems so hard to score against this without taking a risk,” Strauss continued.

“When you have all the fielders guarding the boundary and also men under the lid close by, if you’re going to play a shot, there is an element of risk associated with it.”

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Australia may revive the strategy on day five, but the short-ball barrage takes a heavy physical toll on their pace bowlers. Considering the short turnaround before the third Test at Headingley, Cummins may be reluctant to try it for lengthy periods on Sunday, particularly without Nathan Lyon at his disposal.

However, Starc said the visitors could revisit the blueprint later in the series, depending on conditions.

“I think we’d better get used to seeing this for the rest of the series,” former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said on Sky Sports.

“With England’s interest in taking it on in the first innings, I think they’re going to get more of it, and what we’ve just seen then I think the Australians are going to get more of it.

“It’s presenting wicket-taking opportunities and slowing the scoring down as well.”

‘PHENOMENAL’: KHAWAJA MAKES BAZBALL LOOK FOOLISH

Usman Khawaja has shown England that there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

The 36-year-old has emerged as an early contender for player of the series after his patient 77 during Australia’s second innings at Lord’s. It was his third fifty-plus score in four knocks, pushing his series tally to 300 runs at 75.00.

Khawaja has already scored more runs in two Tests than Australia’s openers collectively mustered in the 2019 Ashes, when David Warner, Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris combined for 197 runs in 20 knocks.

During what has been a high-paced Test series, Khawaja’s strike rate of 38.65 is comfortably the lowest among recognised batters. He’s never flustered in the middle, happy to bide his time and wait for the bowlers to slip up.

The Queenslander’s old-fashioned approach to Test batting has muzzled Bazball and put Australia on the verge of a 2-0 series lead.

“Uzzie epitomises what Australian cricket is doing at the moment. They’re just playing their game,” former Australian captain Mark Taylor told Channel 9.

“Khawaja is a traditional type player … he makes the bowlers bowl to him. He lets a lot of balls go. He plays like a good old-fashioned opener.

“You bowl him something that’s a bit full or a bit short, he’ll put you away. You bowl him a good ball, and he respects it.”

Khawaja and opening partner David Warner have combined for first-wicket stands of 73 and 63 at Lord’s this week, giving Australia’s middle order a platform to capitalise on — something the visitors desperately lacked four years ago.

“They’ve been fantastic,” Starc said on Friday evening.

“They’ve played a lot of cricket together. There was a big focus heading into the series on the way they wanted to go about their cricket, and they’ve both been fantastic openers for a long time. Uzzie’s form over the last couple of years has been phenomenal.

“They’ve created a really good partnership over a long period of time. To come into a big series like this (and make) some of the starts they have has been quality, to see them go about their business there. Obviously the opening partnership is a key one, but throughout our top order, everyone has stepped up at different moments.”

Most deliveries faced in the 2023 Ashes

775 — Usman Khawaja

318 — Steve Smith

265 — Alex Carey

261 — Joe Root

248 — David Warner

STARC’S FOUR-YEAR REDEMPTION AFTER GOLDEN SPELL

Mitchell Starc’s spot in the Test team came under question at stumps on day two of the Lord’s Test — and understandably so.

The left-armer, picked for the second Test ahead of the reliable Scott Boland, couldn’t get the Dukes ball to swing on Thursday, and England’s batters feasted on his wayward bowling.

However, Starc hasn’t put a foot wrong since the start of day three — and his opening spell during England’s second innings was one of the finest of his 79-match Test career.

The New South Welshman was hooping the ball around corners on Saturday evening. He almost snared a wicket in the first over, but Cameron Green couldn’t hold onto the tough chance at gully, giving England opener Ben Duckett an early reprieve.

A few minutes later, Starc manufactured the pace bowler’s dream delivery — an outswinger that pitched on middle stump and nipped away before beating Duckett’s defences, with umpire Chris Gaffaney raising the finger for LBW.

However, Duckett once again survived after successfully calling for a review — the ball had missed off stump by a coat of paint on Hawkeye.

After removing England opener Zak Crawley with a loose delivery that was strangled down the leg side, Starc produced an absolute peach to knock over rival vice-captain Ollie Pope in the fifth over.

Pope missed the brutal inswinger by several inches, falling over himself as the Dukes ball flicked his pad and ripped middle stump out of the ground. The dismissal was particularly satisfying for Lord’s spectators, who had just witnessed nothing but half-trackers for three hours.

The hosts were suddenly reeling at 2-13 in pursuit of the 371-run target. The veins popped out of Starc’s neck as he celebrated the wicket, bellowing in delight, and perhaps in relief — after missing four Tests during the 2019 Ashes, he had finally shown why he deserved selection in the United Kingdom.

Starc has leapfrogged Mitchell Johnson on the overall Test wicket tally, making him Australia’s most prolific left-armed bowler in history — next on the list is Dennis Lillee.

The 33-year-old’s opening spell lacked control, with several loose deliveries flying down the leg side — he has leaked 4.74 runs an over throughout the Lord’s, with no maidens to his name.

However, Starc has an uncanny knack for producing moments of brilliance with the ball, and selectors will find it difficult to omit him for the Headingley Test.

‘MAKES NO SENSE’: LYON EXPOSES SUBSTITUTE FLAW

Nathan Lyon’s heroics on day four of the Lord’s Test were extraordinary — but also farcical.

The 35-year-old, who couldn’t put weight on his right leg after tearing a calf muscle, limped out to bat at No. 11 on Thursday afternoon, adding 15 runs with Mitchell Starc for the tenth wicket to help Australia extend its lead.

Lyon only completed one run between the wickets, hobbling awkwardly to the striker’s end in the 98th over before pulling up in agony and dropping his bat.

Apart from that solitary run, Starc and Lyon rejected any opportunity for an easy single, of which there were many — but that wouldn’t have been the case if a runner were in the middle.

Despite being allowed by the MCC, runners have been barred in all forms of international cricket since 2011 — ICC Playing Condition 25.5 simply states: “Runners shall not be permitted”.

In 2019, concussion substitutes were introduced for players who had suffered head knocks — the first famously being Marnus Labuschagne during the corresponding Ashes Test four years ago.

But after Lyon’s courageous knock at St John’s Wood, there has been renewed debate on whether substitutes should include all forms of injury.

As Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen pointed out on Sky Sports, it was theoretically possible for reserve spinner Todd Murphy to be parachuted into the match if Lyon copped a blow to the helmet. It’s ludicrous that a player’s concussion could work in the team’s favour, which suggests the rules are, to a certain extent, flawed.

However, Lyon rubbished any suggestion Australia had considered the outlandish scenario.

“Test cricket’s been around a lot longer than I have and injuries are part of the game,” Lyon told reporters on Saturday evening.

“I have heard comments that I only went out there to get hit in the head, but I’m really against that. I have lost one of my mates due to being hit in the head, so I think that’s a really poor conversation being had, if I’m honest with you.

“But no, I don’t think for soft tissue injuries (there should be substitutes). But for concussion it’s a pretty big risk, so I’m happy with that, but any other injuries, no. That’s my opinion.”