Cummins era began in style; Australia knocks England out to win the first match of Ashes

What a way to kick start your captaincy era as Cummins led Australia defeated England by 9 wickets to win the first match of the Ashes. In the morning of day four, England were in total control as their captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan were putting back all the pressure on the Aussie bowlers. However, a single wicket changed the dynamics of the game and in the end; it was way too comfortable for the Aussies.

England chose the XI where they left out two of their premier fast bowlers. Jimmy Anderson was given time off to manage his workload while Stuart Broad wasn’t selected without them stating a reason as such. Giving a test off is all fine but the first test of a series that too in Gabba? England only has them to blame. Another problem that the three lions often face is that they don’t have a quality spinner to win a game. The Aussie batsmen thrashed him out of the park every time he came to bowl in the first innings while Nathan Lyon picked four in the second innings.

England could never put that pressure on Australia. They have some great white ball cricketers but the same can’t be said when it comes to red ball. A lot of eyes were on Ben Stokes, who returned back to cricket after quite some time but the all-rounder failed to impress. Captain Joe Root’s decision to bat first after winning the toss has also raised a lot of eyebrows. In Brisbane, the bowlers always get some added advantage in the first innings thus no one’s quite sure why Root chose to bat first!

In the post match conference, Joe Root spoke about his team and the areas he thinks that the team needs to work on. “If I’m being honest, we can’t create as many chances as we did and put them down. Our bowlers were excellent; we have to be better in the field and with the bat”.

The captain justified why he picked Leach over Broad by saying, “I will say is we wanted variation in our attack, to be able to change the pace and move through different gears throughout the innings”. By defending his spinner after his very poor performance, Root said, “Jack is a fine spinner with 20-odd tests he played, he has shown what an instrumental part he can play within this team and I’m sure he will play a big part in the series moving forward”.

Without any surprise, Travis Head was picked as the Man of the match as the right handed batsman scored a brilliant century and ended his innings at 152 runs which gave Australia a huge lead in the first innings. Even after all positives, the Kangaroos will be under some kind of pressure. James Anderson and Stuart Broad will definitely make their return in the second test at Adelaide and without David Warner up front, who’s being in a great form, Aussies might just be under trouble to start with. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will have a huge task to put Australia in a respectable position. Until then, the Kangaroos should celebrate as their captain Pat Cummins led to a fantastic win at Gabba to kick start the Ashes on fire!