England unleash the big guns to highlight the folly of Australia’s bowling choices | Geoff Lemon

In the end it was a relief. Not to say that many Australians tuned in exactly for the Sydney Ashes Test hoping to hear that England were doing well, but it felt normal to see a few sessions yield a score of 211 for three. The run rate leaned toward adventurous, but it was a day within the accepted framework, and that’s a template that not many days in this series have been able to match.

In the context of this current England team, a quick opening stand of 35 off 40 balls was normal. The wickets of both openers in quick succession were normal. However, at the first drop, Jacob Bethell scored on 10, after looking excellent both defensively and offensively in the early attack, the score of 57 for three caused a slight tremor among the spectators.

Three wickets in half a dozen overs? Would it happen again? Another collapse, another test match with a rock on the accelerator and the vehicle pointed at a lake?

That fate did not come true. There had been enough seam movement for Scott Boland to clear the ball away from Bethell’s edge, enough for Michael Neser to smash it into Zak Crawley’s pads. Enough swing for Mitchell Starc to avoid Ben Duckett’s defensive attack. But the aging ball slowed down a bit, a few edges went into the turf, over the cordon or past leg stump, and suddenly everything settled down.

Joe Root and Harry Brook came into this series promising to be England’s engine room, only for one or the other to dump sugar in the fuel tank. Finally, too late, they fired. The cut shot was the choice of the day, too often the ball was presented wide enough to allow access to a corner late behind the point. Although the match is only a few spells into the contest for each of Australia’s three main pacers, the extensive teamwork already made this look like an attack without a single alternative.

Even so early in the proceedings, it illustrated the most abnormal thing about this match: not just Australia’s decision to go in without a spinner, which isn’t entirely unexpected considering this is the third time in this series, but to go in without a bona fide fourth bowler. Four quicks is one thing, if they are all specialists in their role. What was clear today is that when the fourth bowling option is Beau Webster or Cameron Green, both are only good enough to be the fifth. In this case, two halves do not form one whole.

Webster was only given a few overs but was rounded and beaten with equal ease. Green was the biggest concern, taken at over seven runs per over two spells, especially targeted by Brook, and so often picked out while bowling a half-hearted short length. Sydney is no longer a spin-specific pitch, but with Root and Brook settled so comfortably into their enclosure, the opportunity to challenge them with a literal change of pace would have been valuable.

Australia won’t be too worried just yet; another Starc eruption on the second morning could bring them back under control. The pace leader may not be worn out yet, with the previous Tests taking up 13 of the possible 20 matchdays. He has never bowled as few overs as his current tally of five Tests in a series, even if he has only played four Tests. Starc’s speeds were as fast as ever, although accuracy was less consistent.

His teammates will go to sleep knowing they have to get into the headspace of Test cricket, as it has been throughout Starc’s career, and not as it has been in recent weeks: a game of concentration, of putting pressure on a batting side and waiting for an error. If Root and Brook can continue the resistance, they can reverse that pressure. This test match feels like it should on the first night. Stable. Normal. Beyond just the crowd leaving a wet SCG short of half the overs, which is the most normal thing of all in the week after New Year.