Five reasons for English positivity before Gabba Test

You could have been forgiven for thinking that every hope in English Ashes had been lost in the past eight days.

Ben Stokes’ side was humiliated in Perth, where they were supposed to need to win to have any chance of recovering the urn.

Next up is? The pink ball, which turns Mitchell Starc into a Wasim Akram-Glenn McGrath-Mister Fantastic hybrid, and the Gabba, where England always lose.

You could just as easily set the snooker and set your alarms for the early morning.

Not quite,

There is no escaping the dire state of England’s record in Brisbane, which has historically hosted the series opener.

39 years have passed since they won a Test in the capital of Queensland, a series of nine.

Only two times in its history have England managed to escape defeat without a defeat since 1986, when England scored 517-1 in their second innings in 2010 and lost 517-1 in 1998.

Given their brief (but brief) playing time in Perth, Stokes’ side should be more accustomed to Brisbane’s pace and bounce than previous tours. Australia’s most recent results there indicate hope, too.

They won just two of their past five Tests at the venue, despite going unbeaten in 31 of those between 1988 and 2021.

The only time Australia has lost a day-night Test match was when India won the iconic match in 2021, when West Indies suffered a pink-ball defeat in this location in 2024.

England’s battery of pace bowlers should be suited by those familiar traits of the Brisbane pitch, such as pace and bounce, as they did in Perth’s first innings before things took a horrifying turn.

The Gabba has historically been the world’s most sluggish pitch, surpassing the Perth Stadium, and it is even sluggish.

A “hard length” (balls pitched between 8 and 10 meters from the batter) is also the most successful pitching position on the planet.

Helpfully, Josh Tongue, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Ben Stokes, and Josh Tongue, who could replace Mark Wood in the injured lineup, bowl on average in this range.

In the first Test, England averaged 12.5 and 19.8, respectively, with good or bad lengths.

Previous pink-ball tests have shown that while playing in the dark, the ball can be challenging to bat for long periods of time.

It is easy to forget how well England bowled in Perth’s opening innings to defeat Australia for 132.

Since 2010, only twice have Australia been bowled out for fewer runs at home.

England had a 25.4 expected bowling average overall, which is comparable to xG in football, compared to Australia’s 28.7 expected bowling average, which was created by CricViz, a metric used by analysts to compare the two teams.

Glass-half-full supporters would agree with that, but it could also demonstrate how England’s batters slammed into themselves when they fell to deliveries they shouldn’t.

There is little to suggest that England’s bowling was hampered by the second innings, looking at the data.

England’s delivery pattern was good from the first innings until the second, with the average length of the delivery pattern remaining largely unchanged in the channel outside off stump.

Travis Head ran a sensational 128 on the back of a low total in search of a low total.

The pace dropped significantly, with England bowling 44% of deliveries above 87mph on day one and only 33% on day two.

England must also acknowledge that the hosts’ batting problems were more extensive than a few sporadic problems.

Other than Head, Marnus Labuschagne was the only other batter to score 26 in Perth despite making 51 not out in the second inning when the pressure had long since worn off.

This year’s eight Test batters from Australia averaged only 27.65.

In the last 35 years, only twice have averages decreased in a calendar year, and one of them was in 2024.

England’s leading wicket-taker James Anderson said: “We left some marks on them; we hit them with pace, and they weren’t comfortable with it.”

You were focusing on Australia in the first innings and thinking there was little to worry about.

Without a doubt, Starc has the title of world’s top pink-ball player with 81 wickets and an average of 17.09 wickets in day-night games.

Although they have each taken 43 wickets, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon rank second and third overall in such games.

Starc is exceptional in every way.

Starc’s day-night record at the Gabba, which includes 15 wickets in seven innings at 31.26, is unspectacularly normal, despite having played three Tests and one pink-ball Sheffield Shield game.

Although this one may bite England once more, we must hold on for the past.