Former England captain Nasser Hussain appeared disappointed with the England team’s missed opportunities on the pitch against Australia in the third test match of the Ashes series. On the first day of the Third Test, England continued to be let down with their performances on the pitch. Jonny Bairstow dropped catches behind the stumps of Steve Smith and Travis Head, while Joe Root made an effort to catch Mitchell Marsh by 12 runs. Marsh then scored 118 points in the game. Hussain told Sky Sports Cricket that dropping catches is like a “virus”: it spreads through the team.
“It’s like a virus, it’s spreading through the team,” Hussain told Sky Sports Cricket. “I’m not just talking about a day, it’s in a series – you lose it, you get hard hands,” said the former England captain.
“The best catchers I played with were Mark Waugh and Nick Knight, and they had soft hands. Jonny Bairstow will know he should take it, Joe Root will know he should take that – these are not hard chances, but now it spreads like a virus,” he added.
Hussain believes those missed opportunities played an important role in the series score.
“You think ‘don’t come to me, don’t come to me’ when on the pitch you should want every ball to come to you. It’s the difference between the sides and it makes me cross because when England wins it’s all about Bazball, when England loses it’s all about Bazball when actually they are 2-0 down because of the mistakes they made in the game,” said Hussain.
“It’s attention to detail and at the moment Australia has more attention to detail, which is why they’re leading 2-0,” he added.
When England came to the match, England put Australia to bat first and the visitors were bundled for 263 runs in 60.4 overs. Australia fell to 85/4, but with the score of 155 runs for the fifth wicket between Mitchell Marsh (118 in 118 balls, 17 fours and four sixes) and Travis Head (39 in 74 balls), the Aussies were back on track track. But after the dismissal of these two batters, Australia suffered another collapse and was retired for 263 runs.
Wood (5/34) was the bowlers choice for England. Chris Woakes (3/73) and Stuart Broad (2/58) also bowl very well.
England finished the first day 68/3, with Joe Root (19*) and Jonny Bairstow (1*) undefeated. Zak Crawley (33) played a solid knock but Ben Duckett and Harry Brook fell for single digits. Pat Cummins took two wickets while Marsh got one.
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