England must not waste huge opportunity in third Ashes Test as Steve Smith sits out
Jofra Archer striking Steve Smith on Saturday felt seismic at the time, but the sight of the great Australian batsman just milling around with a rugby ball as his team-mates trained, looking for anyone unoccupied enough to chat - Dr Richard Saw, coach Justin Langer and a fellow former captain in Mark Taylor - hammered that sense home.
It was a relief when Australia confirmed Smith’s absence. Not from an English point of view, but that the right decision had been met in good time.
Most other sports would have demanded he missed the game by regulation. It was left to the Australians, who have followed protocol closely throughout and they managed it well once more.
They were not shackled by expediency - Smith’s runs have forged a great position for Australia.
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They need to win one more match to retain the Ashes; that is more likely if he is fit and well for the final two than if he was rushed back, potentially grave consequences and all, for the third.
The pious punishment Smith received from his own board last year has already seen him miss more cricket than needed in recent times - no one should be risking losing a great player for longer.
Most of all, he is a human who happens to play cricket and we should not risk his health. Smith’s absence is sad for the series, but good for the sport, which is showing it is wising up to concussion.
Australia have scored 952 runs off the bat in the three innings involving Smith - 378 of them are the former skipper’s alone, and no one else has more than 135.
With Smith goes five of the touring squad’s six Test centuries in England - the sixth was Matthew Wade’s second-innings 110 at Edgbaston, made in the slipstream of Smith’s second ton of the match.
Wade has eight runs across his other three innings this series. In other words, Smith leaves a vast hole. Marnus Labuschagne made a great fist of it at Lord’s, but his second-highest Test score was still four shy of Smith’s average.
The remaining batsmen know that they will be on the receiving end of more short stuff.
CricViz rate Headingley as the quickest Test pitch in England over the past decade, but that looks unlikely this time; it was slow in the World Cup and spinner Nathan Lyon was said to like what he saw at training on Tuesday.
Bouncers dominated the agenda on Tuesday. Both teams were preparing against short stuff in the nets. Mitchell Starc tore in like a man irked and hit Labuschagne on the grille - as Archer did at Lord’s.
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Marcus Trescothick, with England as a coach and armed with a dog thrower, caught Jason Roy on the neck. Roy, perhaps in a sign of things to come, also devoted plenty of time to trying to put balls in the stand. A tough start in Tests will not inhibit him.
And the media engagements were full of chat about them, too. Joe Root is clearly excited about his new toy. Australians, who know a little more about how to look after such a toy than the English, were keen to remind him that it was not all about landing blows to lids and limbs.
“We know what our plans are to beat England,” said Langer. “What we’re not going to do is get caught up in an emotional battle of who’s going to bowl the quickest bouncers. We’re here to win the Test match, not to see how many helmets we can hit."
Australia are plush with options with the ball and well placed to fight Archer’s fire with fire. Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were terrific at Lord’s, while Peter Siddle has been nagging away all series. James Pattinson is well rested.
So is Starc, who was bowling thunderbolts in the nets, but may miss out again if Langer’s comments are anything to go by. Even the uncapped Michael Neser appears in contention if they rest Siddle, but still want his control and cunning.
If England’s top order could fashion enough runs to win, what a climax we have to a series so far defined by injuries to great players. James Anderson is back taking wickets against Leicestershire Second XI.
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Next week, Smith is set to take guard against Derbyshire Twos - “look out” was Langer’s warning to their bowlers, before he joked that it would save the coaches’ shoulders wanging balls at him for a couple of days.
Both could then return at Old Trafford, with the series level and an Indian summer brightening our moods.
Archer has thrown this series open, but there is a long way to go yet. England won both games that Glenn McGrath missed in the 2005 Ashes.
Smith’s absence here is an opportunity they simply cannot waste.