Joe Root and Harry Brook tease England with a glimpse of what these Ashes could have been
It’s too late, England. We’re already hurt.
By far their best day of the tour, arriving with the series lost and more than six weeks after the first-ball was bowled in Perth. On day one in Sydney, Joe Root cruised to 72 not out, while Harry Brook slashed to an unbeaten 78. Together, the pair put on 154 and are still going. Look, everyone, here’s what you could have won.
Nevertheless, for one afternoon, one of cricket’s greatest pleasures occurred. That of when your team is batting, and you don’t have to watch.
For the first time this series, England fans in Sydney could gaze off into the distance. Safe in the knowledge that Root was dropping the ball at his toes for a single. They could catch up with a friend, ask how they were, then quickly glance over their shoulder as Root ran one down to third for another. In the queue for a coffee and the roar that interrupted them was that bit quieter. That’s not a wicket. Brook must have punched one for four. Bliss.
This is what cricket is meant to be. This is what the Ashes was meant to be. A high-quality contest, where Australia had their sessions, but England did also. Australia’s early morning burst saw England sink to the relative danger of 57 for 3, but Root and Brook arrived and on a friendly wicket settled in for the day. We had an ebb and a flow. Rather than a lurch and a crash.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. Root had a wild drive at this first delivery and missed. While Brook did the same off his second ball and got an inside edge that narrowly avoided the stumps. So too did Brook stick to his guns of chaos strategy as he charged down the wicket on occasion, singling out Cameron Green in particular to be his victim of the day.
Unfortunately, despite the calm. England can’t win this week. To lose will to be thrashed; and to win will be to infuriate. The Ashes 2025/26 will forever be remembered as one of sport’s great anti-climaxes. A letdown of cricket’s own doing as it told the world that this, this, was going to be amazing. For one day in Perth - the first one - it was spectacular, but from that point England only got worse and Australia only got better. The Australian public was watching on with increasing bemusement.
‘This? Is what you told us to be excited about.’
The result is days like today, while preferable for the heart rate, only serve to further that mental exasperation. Confirmation that those of an English persuasion were not out of their minds to believe England could compete here, with today’s performance only adding to the mind bending frustration that they have only come to play once the ball had already been taken home. It’s a bit late now, lads.
Chronic underperformance has become the buzz-phrase of the week. Teams can account for one or two players losing form. But they cannot account for a team where only three batters average more than 25 and a bowling attack whose leading wicket-taker is going at the best part of five-runs-an-over for the series. England’s part-time spinner, Will Jacks, has been asked to bowl 50 overs and conceded 246 runs. I’d love to see the spreadsheet where that was part of the plan.
So too does the frustration fester given how, on paper, unsurprising it all is. The news from here in Sydney, is that Joe Root, England’s greatest batter of all time, and Harry Brook, the best batter of his generation, have scored runs on a friendly wicket against Michael Neser and Scott Boland. This was all we needed this series for England, if not to achieve something great, then at least to partake. Competence. People playing to the standard we know is theirs.
Of course, it was not all plain sailing. Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Jacob Bethell went cheaply in the first session and that familiar pit in the stomach returned that the bad thing was happening again. But Root and Brook were adults. They batted. And they batted well. The run-rate for the day was a cruisy 4.68, but the number of boundaries England struck was low. They ticked along at ease.
This is not an announcement of Bazball’s return. Rumours of its demise have very much not been exaggerated. Nor does it feel a coincidence that England’s best day of the series has come on a rain-reduced afternoon where they were denied the time to stuff it up. But for one day it was a joy not to watch. To not fear every delivery, and to trust the two men out in the middle, both with career averages north of fifty, that they’d still be there when you got back.
For six weeks, this England team have been unmissable. Today you’d have hardly noticed they were there. It was wonderful.
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