England was bowled out for 185 on day one of third Ashes 2021-22 Test in MCG.
After being hammered in the first two Test matches by the hosts, the Joe Root-led side decided to make some big changes as Ollie Pope, Rory Burns, Chris Woakes, and Stuart Broad were left out of the XI for the MCG Test match. In came Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, and Jack Leach, but failed to make any impressions.
Pat Cummins won the toss on his return to Australia's side and chose to bowl first. England couldn’t do much apart from Joe Root’s 50, as the visitors crumbled for 185 runs. Cummins and Lyon picked 3 wickets each and Australia ended day one at 61/1 with Warner being out for 38 runs.
Atherton was not happy with the wholesale changes, saying that he would have stuck with under-fire opener Joe Burns and middle-order batter Ollie Pope for the third Ashes Test. openers Haseeb Hamid going for a 10-ball duck, and Zak Crawley, who replaced Burns, could manage only 12 off 25 balls, both falling to Pat Cummins. Jonny Bairstow made 35.
“I would’ve stuck with Pope and I would’ve stuck with Burns. I wouldn’t have made the changes that England has made. I would have certainly rejigged the balance of the attack bringing Wood back for sure. But I do feel for a batsman like Zak Crawley, who’s a young kid making his way and suddenly asked to come out and open in a Boxing Day Test here having basically not picked up a bat in a competitive match since September 15 or something at the end of the English season,” Atherton told SEN Test Cricket on Sunday.
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Atherton questioned Zak Crawley’s inclusion in the England XI after lack of match time under his belt but welcomed the inclusion of pacer Mark Wood.
“I wouldn’t have made the changes that England have made. I would have certainly rejigged the balance of the attack bringing Wood back for sure. But I do feel for a batsman like Zak Crawley, who’s a young kid making his way and suddenly asked to come out and open in a Boxing Day Test here having basically not picked up a bat in a competitive match since September 15 or something at the end of the English season," said Atherton.
“Now that’s a consequence of the schedule and everything around that, but it cannot be easy to come in on the back of so little cricket. And given the kind of criticisms that’s come in the past few days I would have given the likes of Pope and Burns the opportunity to respond to those criticisms and show what they’re made of,” Atherton said.
Atherton said that criticism would have spurred Ollie Pope to do well.
He said: “I think, for example, Pope is the best young player in England as I’ve said before on this broadcast and if he’s going to have a long Test career he has to find a way to get through these tricky patches. You can’t just keep dropping a player after a bad couple of games if you have faith in him and if you think he’s a player for the long term."
(IANS inputs)