Australia bowlers’ controlled brilliance in the opening overs set the tone and England and their captain had no answer
Six weeks ago, in a basement snug in friendly, rainy Manchester, Joe Root had talked about fine margins of angle and bounce, about Australian soil, Australian leather, Australian height; the cultural geometry of Australian fast bowling.
Root had already spent a month indoors visualising bowlers and plans. He talked about the way his own learned movements betray him, about reprogramming that voodoo-ish understanding of the planes of movement around off stump; and about the fact Australia’s bowlers would be focusing on the same space, the same angles, the route to the edge of his bat.
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