JASON GILLESPIE: Bazball has spooked Aussies

JASON GILLESPIE: Bazball has spooked Australia… Pat Cummins’ strategy has allowed England to rack up easy runs

• The Ashes remain on a knife edge with England close to levelling the series
• Cummins has appeared shaken at times because of England’s positive approach
• He could potentially step down one day, but for now he is Australia’s leader 

In the last 72 hours, everyone has been absolutely slamming Australia and, in particular, captain Pat Cummins. I feel for him because some of the pile-on has been a bit harsh. It’s a big call to say all of a sudden that he’s not the man for the job. I still believe that he is. But, at the same time, there are valid questions to be asked.

Firstly, the decision to not play a frontline spinner in this Test match. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a frontline spinner being trusted and backed to play. Five days of cricket is a long time and you don’t know for certain what is going to happen with the weather.

Did the batting of Mitchell Marsh at Headingley muddle the selectors thinking? In my mind, it has been quite clear that Cameron Green has been the preferred all-rounder over the last couple of years and when fit, he slots back in.

It appears, on the surface, that Australia almost took the easy option by dropping the young spinner, as opposed to making the tougher selection decision and leaving out one of the all-rounders. It would be interesting to get the thoughts of Australia’s premier spinner Nathan Lyon about the decision not to play Todd Murphy.

There has also been a lot of criticism of Australia’s strategy of employing multiple sweepers and allowing England to play very low-risk cricket while scoring at five or more runs per over.

Australia captain Pat Cummins has been criticised heavily over the last few days for various decisions he has made

A big call was leaving out spinner Todd Murphy (pictured) and opting to play both Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green

There is potential that England’s Bazball approach has spooked Australia with the series on a knife edge

I suspect Australia’s thinking is that they believe England will be very aggressive anyway so they may as well protect boundaries. However, the cost of this is the amount of easy runs England have been allowed to score.

I wonder how the Australian quicks feel when they are getting pushed for an easy single when they have executed their best ball. It must be deflating. Australia only bowled three maidens in 107.4 overs in England’s first innings, which is bonkers.

Less attacking fields minimise opportunities to create strings of overs that go for two runs or less. Those overs create opportunities for wickets because the batters want to move the scoreboard on and they take more risks.

Has Bazball spooked Australia? A number of Australian players in interviews have insisted that they will play their way and they will focus on what they can do. But what we have seen is reactive plans to England’s style of play. We wouldn’t be seeing all these defensive fields and raucous bouncer plans if Australia simply focused on what they do well.

I’ve also always believed that bowlers relax a little bit knowing they have lots of boundary protection and are therefore not quite as precise with their execution. As a bowler, with a more attacking field, you know you have to be bang on with your execution otherwise you get punished. With spread fields and waiting for mistakes, it has played into England’s hands.

That said, it is a really difficult job to be a fast-bowling captain. There is a reason why there hasn’t been many down the years. You have to concentrate on doing your job, which is physically very demanding, and then you need the mental capacity to make decisions about who is bowling at the other end, field placings and the state of the game.

A lot of people think that Steve Smith actually runs the show, but I don’t believe that. I think Pat is a very strong character and he’s his own man. He might be taking advice from Smith, but why wouldn’t he? Steve is a wonderful player and was captain for many years.

I think some of the Australians calling for a change in captain are doing so largely because they understand just how important a player Pat is as an out-and-out fast bowler. Whether he has a ‘c’ next to his name or not, it doesn’t bother us. We just want to make sure that he is doing his job with the ball.

At some point in the future, it may well be that Pat decides he just wants to focus on his bowling. Over the next 12 months, Pat is captain in my eyes.

Australia have been urged to focus on what they do well rather than react to England’s play

A lot of people have argued that former Steve Smith actually runs the show for Australia

There is potential that Cummins may step down at some point in the future to focus on his bowling

But there will be a handing over at some point and I see Travis Head captaining Australia in the long term.

He was made captain of South Australia at the age of 20, so he has had a wonderful apprenticeship, learning all the traits of leadership at first-class level. I have worked with him closely for many, many years, and I think he would be an inspired choice. If he was given that opportunity, I think he would do a wonderful job.

As for the rest of this series, regardless of the result here, Australia will have some real thinking to do in terms of their strategy in the field ahead of the fifth Test. But I still think they can do the job at the Oval. You start each Test afresh.

Selfishly, with my Australia hat on, if we can get a draw out of this one, it would be great. But if I put my neutral hat on, going into the Oval at 2-2 is what everybody wants to see. It would be an absolute humdinger of a Test match.

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