Brisbane, Australia – england batter Joe Root defended his teamS preparation despite a costly display of dropped catches on the second day of the day-night Ashes Test at the Gabba, where Australia closed play at 378-6, a 44-run lead. England missed five chances, four of them during the night session under lights.
The dropped catches have put England’s hopes of staying competitive in both the match and the series under meaningful pressure. Root insisted the team had worked diligently to prepare for the unique challenges of pink-ball cricket,despite their relative inexperience with the format. England has played only eight day-night Tests, compared to Australia’s 15. Australia routinely includes a day-night Test in their annual schedule, while England’s last visit to Australia four years ago was followed by only one such match.
Notably, after losing the first Test within two days, England chose not to send any of their starting XI to a day-night practice match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, opting rather for five training sessions in Brisbane, two of which were held under floodlights.
“We worked as hard as we could,” Root stated. “We did a huge amount of catching and making sure we utilised those two sessions under lights well. Sometimes the catches just don’t stick. You’ve got to keep applying yourself and wanting the ball so you’re ready when that next opportunity comes. That’s one of the nuances of the game and this pink-ball Test match.”
former England captain Michael Vaughan, speaking on the Test Match special podcast, questioned the effectiveness of solely relying on drills. “I would have done things completely differently,” Vaughan said. “What I saw today was a team that looked jaded. These fielding drills – they’re fantastic, but you know the ball is coming to you. In a game, you have no clue when it is indeed coming to you and it is completely different. The art of taking chances is concentration. If you’re not out there on a regular basis practising for many hours,when that chance comes you have to be concentrating to take that opportunity. The only way you get good at that is by training the brain to do it.”
Responding to Vaughan’s criticism, Root maintained the team had done all it could. “It’s never going to be perfect. All you can do is give yourself the best possible chance and I think we’ve done that. In the lead-up to this game we’ve got used to conditions,we’ve got used to the heat,we got used to the surfaces.We’ve caught under lights, we’ve caught in daylight and tried to catch in twilight as well. We’re not perfect, we’re all human and we’re going to make mistakes.”
