Good morning and welcome to stay protection of day two of the second Ashes Test at Edgbaston which Australia start, after the day one cyclone, 379 runs behind England with 10 first-innings wickets in hand. This correspondent was lucky to be among the many crowd yesterday and can report that in these 4 overs of Australia’s innings, the gang was louder than any I’ve heard at a match in England, Australia or India. But it wasn’t like that each one day. There have been nerves and exasperation, too, a delight within the tone set by Zak Crawley from ball one however a way – spells of the Joe Root-Harry Brook and Root-Jonny Bairstow partnerships aside – of how precarious all of it was. But that’s England underneath Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.
It all the time brings to thoughts that concluding speech from the schmaltzy movie Parenthood that are hackneyed however nonetheless appear to have caught for 35 years: “You know, when I was young, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster. Up and down, up, down. Oh, what a ride. I always wanted to go again. It was just interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened…so scared, so sick, so excited…and so thrilled all together. Some didn´t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.”
How do you choose the declaration – an act of hubris or chutzpah from England’s management? It’s a journalist;s cop out to ever write ‘only time will tell’ so let’s not trouble. All I can say, having watched each minute of each Test of Ben Stokes’ captaincy, and written untold phrases chronicling them, that it felt proper, the chance to attempt to expose Australia’s openers to the stress of seeing out these late overs. And David Warner was very skittish in that first over; he might have run himself or Usman Khawaja out twice.
What England are lately, in addition to audacious, is shameless, in the absolute best sense of the world. Whatever occurs immediately – and it has been raining this morning adopted by a day of clouds and sultry temperatures – they’ll go to the grave with a ‘No Regrets’ positivity, like placing a Hell’s Angel on the wheel of a Mark II Jag. They’re going to make use of it for a blag.