Former England batter Kevin Pietersen was quick to criticise the conditions in Australia as his old side slumped their way a sorry end on day two at the Adelaide Oval.
As the weather forced players from the field, England were looking down the barrel of another huge task, ending the day 2-17 after Australia declared on 473.
The oft-opinionated Pietersen was quick to blame factors beyond the quality of play.
AS IT HAPPENED: Australia stamp authority on day two
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“Foolish to even think England were going to properly compete in this Ashes with everything else that’s happening off the field,” he said on Twitter, presumably referencing the quarantine measures that he’d previously criticised.
“Much easier for Aus at HOME!
“Way harder for ENG with all the nonsense that’s happening here!”
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1471791942488965123
The claim seems particularly disputable when you consider that it was Australia who were without their captain, Pat Cummins, due to being a close contact of someone in a restaurant who tested positive for COVID-19.
On BT Sport’s Ashes coverage, Matt Prior and Sir Alastair Cook broke down how different batters use different mental milestones to dig in and get through long days out in the middle — a mindset England could sorely do with right now.
“The England cricket team tomorrow won’t turn up and go ‘right, we’ve got to bat 130 overs.’ It’s about how you break that down into session-by-session,” Prior said.
He spoke about checking off getting through the first few overs, then setting the next point at drinks, and so on.
“When I batted with Ian Bell, we always worked in five overs. So you’d come up and let’s say there’s 25 overs bowled or 75 overs bowled it’s ‘right, let’s get to 80. We’ve got to get to 80 overs’.”
“And when you get to 80 overs, start again, let’s get to 85. And that’s how you sort of break down these big targets that look a bit daunting at times, make them really small and achievable.”
Cook said that his old batting partner Andrew Strauss was all about tackling things in five-run blocks. But whatever the technique, struggling opener Rory Burns probably needs a new one.
Burns was once again dismissed cheaply, Mitchell Starc getting him in the third over of the innings.
On BT’s daily Ashes podcast, Burns found a rare defender in England international Kate Cross.
“What’s brilliant about a five-Test series, you’ve got the opportunity to try and get people out, and work them out and rough batters up, but you’ve also got the batters trying to counter that,” she said.
“Burns’ character will come from how he plays the next couple of games and innings.
“If he can come back and get through that first ball period and start scoring some runs then suddenly it could look completely different for England.”
In his column in The Times, former captain Mike Atherton said there was an air of inevitability about the dismissal.
“Standing at the non-striker’s end for the first ball of the match, to delay his date with Mitchell Starc, Rory Burns pinged his second ball from the left-armer to the square-leg fence, but edged his third to slip, having been squared up on the back foot,” he wrote.
“It was a good ball to get early in an innings, but Burns has suffered a torrid start against Starc and is facing a long tour.”
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