Joe Root, and old-fashioned patience for England

Root played grown-up cricket, while the rest of the top-order found creative ways to get out

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Joe Root has patience; England do not.

Root could have been out early on Day 1 of the second Ashes Test, pushing at a ball outside offstump, almost finding a diving second slip. That can happen to any No.4 who is in early because the top order has collapsed. This is what we would call normal cricket. Although now, it should be called retro cricket.

Because it was nothing like what we see much anymore from England.

Bazball is rarely about soft-hand pushes.

Ollie Pope’s lust affair with his own stumps is still happening. But the ability to force a ball back onto your stumps that would have missed the wickets by nearly a metre is something special.

He got the short wide one, and moved across his crease to cramp himself up, and then used an angled bat to hit it backwards. This is one of the worst starters in Test cricket history, and last game, he managed to begin well twice. So maybe he was a due a failure. But as many of his bowled dismissals are, this was ugly.

Zak Crawley got another of his easy, breezy, beautiful, Coverboy 70-odds. His first hour was nervy and weird, but that’s how he likes it. But there was always a danger of him starting again after a break. To go out half-heartedly pulling Michael Neser is really bad. This was the moment where a Crawley 150 could have changed the series. Instead, it was another tweet when an article was needed.

It was just such a nothing ball, nothing shot, nothing much. And he knew it.