He could be a genius, but he has pretty much published an invitation to bowling attacks around the world to bowl to him in the channel with a packed off-side field, and he will chase it. Teams will be clocking this, both the analysts and the great bowlers like Bumrah and Cummins. Brook will give himself nowhere to go, because in the Ashes last year he took on every short ball, and now if you hide it outside off stump he will take that on, too. Batting like that exposes Root even more.
They need to generate more partnerships. Against Sri Lanka they did not have a single partnership of 100 across the series (Sri Lanka had three). That leaves you totally reliant on individual brilliance.
I felt England’s bowling was fine this week, but I thought the over-aggressive fields they went for did the bowlers a disservice, and put them on the back foot immediately. They went out with an idea to be super-aggressive, but this was not the match or pitch for that. This was a top-of-off pitch, two or three slips and a gully, with extra cover in. They had six slips, short leg, leg slip. It was almost as if they had 650 on the board, but they had half of that.
To make matters worse, the Oval has a rapid outfield and the new ball has not been doing as much lately. You are almost sitting in, waiting for the lacquer to come off and then it swings round corners after 15 or 20 overs. The fields meant that Sri Lanka got off to a flying start, which bowlers hate. It means they lose confidence and start chasing. It just did not look right and was too easy for Sri Lanka.
I have looked at England this week and thought “you would never do that against India or Australia”. So why do it against Sri Lanka, who competed hard in the first two Tests and have shown they are a good team?
