Broad bowled the first over of Australia’s innings to Warner who,unlike the 2019 tour,hit every ball well,but twice created uncertainty with Khawaja given Warner’s eagerness to get off the mark. He eventually opened his account with a lovely cover drive to the boundary and repeated it in Broad’s next over.
Already Warner has passed most of his scores from four years ago,when his second-highest total in ten innings was 11.
Nathan Lyon was the glue that held Australia together,claiming 4-149 from 29 hard-bitten overs.
For all the excitement of blazing half-centuries from the elegant Zak Crawley (61 from 73 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (78 from 78 balls) in an excellent return to Test cricket from a badly broken leg,Root played sensible Bazball. His innings included dabs,drives,flicks,reverse sweeps and two remarkable sixes scooped off the pace of captain Pat Cummins and Scott Boland over the slips.
Returning fast bowler Josh Hazlewood,playing just his fifth Test in two years because of injuries,described England’s new brand of cricket as “a good fun challenge”.
“It’s good to play a different brand of cricket. Although I don’t think we got dragged into it as much as we could have if things went really south. We held our guns pretty well. It wasn’t outrageous strokeplay,” he said.