Unchanged Australia ready to make impact on Ashes day nighter

The first day-night test played in an Ashes series will begin tommorow with Australia being 1-0 up. The series takes both teams to Adelaide; the birthplace of day-night cricket, and the fortesss format for Australia.

Being undefeated in day-night test matches, Australia will feel fairly confident in their chances of dismantling an exposed English side. However, I feel that this game may be the game that England could change their campaign. It is seen that the pink ball swings more frequently and also inconsistently, suggesting why many batsmen have trouble. Moreover, when the twilight session begins, the balance of bat and ball alters, and suddenly it becomes a hunting period for bowlers, in particular swing bowlers. Hence, I believe that the pink ball will favour the English bowlers, in particular, James Anderson. Analysing England’s batting side, I do not see them doing better than in the first test. Their extreme lack of ability to face the short ball, will be an area of exploitation that the Aussies will target. 

In saying this, I hope that the Australian team come out to bowl with some form of intent. For most of their bowling innings, they lacked clear plans, aggression and flare. However, this does not include Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, who always were looking to attack the batsmen and attempting to make something happen. 

The Australian batting is in sound form with some minor hiccups including Usman Khawaja and Peter Handscombe. Khawaja’s major hurdle is going to be his ability against spin. I believe that his dismissal against Moeen Ali was too some extent soft, and not a technical flaw. Otherwise against fast bowling, he is a class act. Hence, it would not be supprising to see England include Mason Crane for the second test to target Khawaja and be a more frontline spinner in the England attack. 

Much like the lead up to the first test, I think that Australia are going to be hurt by not including an allrounder. Australia’s pace attack is to some extent fairly one dimensional. Therefore, the inclusion of a genuine allrounder with experience in the middle order like Moises Henriques or Marcus Stoinis will give the Aussies greater variety. However, no one at this stage in the squad has looked like losing their place, hence at this stage I am not suprised that the XI has not changed. 

To the keepers, I thought Tim Paine’s keeping was sharp and highly impressive despite spilling one chance. I think that his keeping is something that should be valued a lot more than his batting, the runs he score should be seen as a handy bonus to the team’s total. It is an understatement to say that Johnny Bairstow is going to be having a couple of “headaches” about his tour in Australia. In particular his odd “head-butt” encounter with Camron Bancroft, should be something that the Australian team should use to target Bairstow. Seeing the type of player he is, I am sure that Bairstow will produce something special this game.

Overall, this day-night test should be an absolute cracker. I do see England with a red hot chance to win this game. This is due to their bowlers being more suited to the conditions and the extensive criticism thay may just work in their favour. However, I lean on the view that Australia should win the game depending if they win the toss and bat to hopefully compile a big first innings total. 

But let’s hope for another fantastic test match and a historic one for Ashes cricket.