England look set to be pretty tired when they eventually go into bat at Lord’s for this Ashes Second Test, with Ben Stokes’ side toiling in the field on Day One of a match that they badly need to win if they are to regain the miniature urn this summer. There wasn’t a huge amount of joy as David Warner and Steve Smith made hay with the bat.
However, it will eventually fall to the hosts to see if they can match the Aussies and accumulate some runs, with the pitch looking set to be batting-friendly and we’re going to return to the well and back Joe Root to feature strongly. The fact that England’s best batsman doesn’t come in until number four should serve him well.
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Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon will all be nice and fresh to have a go at the England openers, with Duckett and Crawley potentially struggling to contain the tourists’ bowling attack, while Ollie Pope struggled to get runs on the board at Edgbaston and he could be pitted into batting within a few overs.
However, Root played very well in Birmingham and should have few problems getting back in the groove. We might even witness a pragmatic display should England need their number four to hold things steady and move the total towards a big number that Australia have previously set.
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