Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc leave England facing a second defeat

An underappreciated aspect of India’s Test series victory in Australia this year was their handling of fourth seamer Cameron Green. The rookie all-rounder stands at 6 feet 5 inches and generates disconcerting bounce at brisk pace, but India didn't give him a single wicket in his 44 overs through the four-match series which they won 2-1. The consequence was that Australia had to simply keep throwing the ball back to their specialist fast bowlers in search of a breakthrough, leaving them knackered as the series neared its conclusion.

On Day 3 of the second Ashes Test on Saturday, for the second straight game, Green showed that his bowling is far more threatening than how the Indian batters made it look. When he was given the pink ball after the first break, there was a hint of desperation starting to seep into the Australian camp. Joe Root and Dawid Malan—England’s in-form batters—had put together 123 runs in the first session without a blemish, and the inexperienced pacers Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser weren’t quite hitting their straps.

It prompted skipper Steve Smith to turn to Green and the impact was almost immediate. In his third over after the break, after beating the bat on a couple of occasions, the big man got England’s big fish with a delivery that just shaped away and caught Root’s outside edge. For the second time in consecutive innings Green had Root's number, having dismissed the England skipper in similar fashion for 89 in the second innings of the Gabba Test. Root was on 62 when he was sucked into nicking it. It was Green's fourth wicket of the series, which later became five with Ben Stokes’s dismissal. Green bowled more balls in the channel outside off-stump than anyone else from either side.

Root’s downfall triggered an all too familiar collapse—the last eight wickets fell for only 86 runs—to leave England staring down the barrel again. Their ineptitude saw them bundled out for 236 and Australia extend the lead to 282 runs with nine wickets in hand at stumps, choosing to bat again rather than enforce the follow-on.

Mitchell Starc, who took four wickets, was all praise for Green at the end of the day. “He is a fantastic talent. His role has been huge. He gets extra bounce from that height and has come into his own with the ball this summer. We saw some of that talent last summer,” the pace spearhead told a press conference.

Once Root was dismissed, the onus was on Malan to carry on. What happened instead was that Malan quickly followed his skipper back to the dressing room 20 runs shy of a century.

“One of Rooty or me should have gone on to make a big hundred. Big hundreds win Tests. Both times we have been found short as a batting unit. To get to 80 and get out pretty softly was disappointing,” Malan told reporters.

The end to Malan’s innings—he slashed outside off-stump to be caught at first slip—wasn’t as much of a concern as the form of a seemingly fragile middle-order. Both Ollie Pope (5) and Jos Buttler (0) have enjoyed a prolonged run in the side, but have glaringly shown little to suggest they deserve that backing. Pope was out to Nathan Lyon when he hastily skipped down the track and offered a catch to Marnus Labuschagne at short leg, betraying a discomfort against off-spinners stretching back to his struggles against R Ashwin in India in February.

Buttler looks desperately short of confidence. His dropped catches in Australia’s innings must have already created doubts in his head, and his 15-ball duck on Saturday will only exacerbate matters. Despite Starc slanting the ball across him and beating his outside edge on a few occasions, Buttler didn’t heed the warning signs. A waft at one well away from the body was snaffled by David Warner at first slip.

Only 57 runs came for England in that second session for the loss of four wickets, which meant the good work of the opening session was undone in a couple of hours. With Stokes looking strangely subdued, it was only a matter of time before Australia came back in the final session and claimed the last four wickets. A couple fell to Lyon, who will be a bigger threat in England’s second innings given the sharp turn he is already extracting.

The workload of Australia’s bowlers—they were in the field for 84.1 overs—must have been the main factor for the hosts not enforcing the follow-on, and the help available to the spinners was possibly a contributing element in making sure England bat last. Even Root was getting the ball to grip and turn towards the end of the day. With enough time left in the game, nothing less than a miracle will do for England from here.

Australia lead 1-0 in the five-match series.