Joe Root is sputtering but Ollie Pope is thriving during the Ashes warm-up in England

Joe Root’s attempt to lay to rest the ghost of Australia’s past failures began with the addition of a new one, as his fourth Ashes tour began in short and inglorious style. The world’s No. 1 Test batsman, the subject of much discussion ahead of the series due to his poor average on previous such trips, was the most notable failure as many of his teammates boosted their confidence and their scores on another day of light-hearted cricket and indeed again against the Lions at Lilac Hill, where the seniors finished, having been bowled out just before the close, on 426, a lead of 51.

Zak Crawley described it as “definitely a flat wicket” and as the atmosphere among the few dozen spectators was similar, but with intense heat expected from the stands and the pitch when the real action starts next Friday, it is not clear to what extent anyone is clearly better prepared now than they were a few days ago.

“Cricket’s cricket, it’s time in the middle,” Crawley said. “We are doing everything we can with what we have and we have the feeling that we will be ready. As far as I am concerned, I think it is good that we are getting used to the weather, to the [intensely irritating] flies so yes, it is good preparation, I think.

On the eve of this match, Ben Stokes reasoned that success for Root in the Ashes was inevitable as “he is the greatest English batsman the country has ever seen” and “has been in phenomenal form over the last two or three years”. Neither term has often been applied to Ollie Pope, but it was England’s number three who looked the most confident and got the most reward. He scored immediately, perhaps even suspiciously, a century earlier, allowing a Shoaib Bashir delivery to hit his stumps. In doing so, he won the private game of one-upmanship in the top three, sacking Zak Crawley in the 80s and Ben Duckett in the 90s before Pope reached triple figures. Ben Stokes, playing with the ball on Thursday, made 77 before beating a delivery from Will Jacks, which went neatly to Bashir.

Root faced a dozen balls and scored just one run when he miscued a pull to midwicket from Matt Potts, as England, having surged through the opening session, lost three wickets for three runs soon after the restart and stumbled from 182 without loss to 185 for three. Harry Brook followed shortly after doubling Root’s score with a horrendous dismissal as he charged forward into the attack but only made contact with the air, sending Nathan Gilchrist’s delivery clattering against the stumps. At that point England were at 198 for four, but Pope and Stokes saved them from the humiliation of being outscored by their students.

But at this moment, an hour before the end, when Bashir stopped screeching while fielding, fell to the ground, stood there for maybe a minute and then just got back up and kept going, at least there were no injuries this time. Brydon Carse had recovered from the stomach upset that kept him out of the opening day, and although he refrained from bowling as a precaution, he did make a brief appearance with the bat, replacing Mark Wood in the England line-up against the team he had initially been named in. He only lasted three deliveries.

Wood watched much of the action, with his left leg strapped securely from just below the knee, as he waited for a hamstring scan scheduled for the late afternoon. The resulting images will be checked by a specialist in Britain before a decision is made on his future.

A total of nine players bowled for the Lions, four of whom were members of the Ashes squad. After five overs, Potts had conceded 40 runs and endured something of a nightmare, although his main problem was not poor quality but bad luck, as Duckett in particular scored a succession of boundaries with the edge of his bat – including one, when on six, which may have been caught in the slip by Ben McKinney (44 of Duckett’s first 50 runs came within boundaries).

Potts then went to just 2.36 per over and finished the day as the outstanding bowler, even though his two-wicket run was matched by Gilchrist and bettered by Jacob Bethell, who took three in just 4.3 overs as the batters grew without worry towards the end.