Once again fans show just how fickle they are. Whether it's decrying a 0-2 loss in a friendly at Scunthorpe to eulogising an actual league win a week later, the same is true of this thread.
Root, like David Gower (a long time) before him, may not be the best captain and he might be too laconic but this poor defeat was due to an inability to remove Smith in either innings. That's it.
Had Anderson been fit, as I mentioned before, he may have bowled out Siddle and Lyon quite quickly and the result could have been far different. But it wasn't.
Instead, Root is a poor captain.
In the incredibly famous Headingley win of 1981 was that down to Mike Brearley's captaincy? Actually, no. It was individual heroics, and the intervention of Bob Taylor who had to convince Brearley to let Willis change ends in Australia's 2nd innnings.
I was a big fan of Brearley. He wasn't a good batter but his other qualities more than made up for it. Which reminds me:
Lord's Cricket Ground. Thursday, 11am
Phone rings
"Hello, Lord's"
"Can I speak to Mike Brearley please?"
"I'm sorry, he's just gone out to bat"
"I'll hold"
I don't think it is a case of being fickle. I think it is a dose of reality that they don't like. There are many comparisons to be made from the new cricket fans for England and also new City fans for us.
For me, I expect us to lose every game we play. It's just too many years of following both teams...when seemingly in a place where it is more improbable to lose, then we defy the odds and actually manage it - through some spectacular way.
Yet, we we do win I am elated as anyone. Punch drunk and cheering from the rafters.
If I may look at the two captains and assess their decisions.
Paine - Made the right call to bat. Looked like a disaster at 122-8....but then Siddle, whom has previous for keeping us at bay, provided much needed support for Smith...for whom is up there with Kholi for the best player in the world..at present. They got 130 runs too many, and we scored 130 runs too few.
Paine made the right choices over his bowlers too, when to bowl them, chopping and changing and bowling them in short spells. His fielding positions were attacking and more importantly he always looked in control.
Paine also had the best resources to hand. He had Smith next to him, a bit like Kholi has Dhoni in One Day Matches. He has Langer (along with Warne, the best captain Australia never had), Ponting and Tugga in the background. Hell, Border is still a selector too, I think. That's like fighting people on horseback with tanks.
Root - Along with selectors, management and Jimmy, allowed the latter to play when not match fit. Yes he may have been fit...but not match fit. Two different things.
Root - used his bowlers badly in the second innings and bowled Ali and Denly for far too long. He didn't bowl himself nor Woakes until it was far too late.
Root does not have the tactical backup that the Aussies have....nor does he have Hazelwood and Starc waiting in the wings. He doesn't even have a spinner.
Root was forced to place a poor field, as he could not trust his spinner and part time spinner not to leak runs.
Are Aussie in a better place than us? Yes. Are they a better team than us? Yes. Will we have to play out of our socks to beat them? Definitely.
Now on to 1981. We won that series down to the change in captaincy.
Yes MB was not a good batsman, he wasn't good enough to play for England. His leadership was brilliant. He allowed Beefy to be the free spirit he needed to be, unburdened by captaincy. Wound him up then let him go. Bowling Willis up the hill at Headingley was designed to get him angry. At 52-1 Willis said to his captain "I'm too old to be bowling up hill into the wind." Willis then was told he could run down the hill, not to worry about no balls "I'll worry about those," said MB and to bowl "fast and straight."
Willis had the confidence of his captain....and from a psychological point of view, which of course MB is exemplary, he had got his fast bowler fired up and protected by taking away his biggest fear of bowling no balls. Superb leadership.
MB actually made the team better, even though he didn't actually individually play the ball well.
It is a bit like what DC trots out. Win as a team, lose as a team. Victims or winners. We haven't had the best squads in the leagues we have been successful in. We haven't had the most money....but we have had the leadership and tactics to give us those fine margins. That is what MB gave us in 1981. What he gave us was gold. As his batting certainly wasn't.
Similar to MV when he took over in 2003. Sadly Root and Bayliss are not the pairing to take us forward. Root needs someone like Jason Gillespie. Now that would be an appointment. He worked wonders at Yorkshire and would do brilliantly for England.
Will we lose 0-5. It is a good possibility. Can we turn it around? Well, the backroom trick cyclist is going to have to work overtime....Never say never. Sadly we don't have a MB figure to assist us, like he was able to in 1981.
Australia have plenty of those figures.
