For all the discourse around the contrasting styles of play, England and Australia’s vastly different chance conversion rates is the most glaring difference between the two sides across the series.
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At Headingley, on by some distance the quickest pitch of the series so far, England, bolstered by the express pace of Mark Wood and a fresh Chris Woakes, consistently created chances under gloomy Leeds skies. But with regularity, those chances were not always converted into wickets.
Travis Head, Alex Carey and most damagingly, Mitch Marsh, were all given lives off straightforward dropped catches on the opening day at Headingley. Steve Smith was another afforded a life, but his inside edge that was dropped by Jonny Bairstow was a more difficult opportunity.
Root held onto two catches at first slip but also shelled two, with his frustration clear in his celebration of the catch of Travis Head. Root was famously the beneficiary of a dropped chance en route to an Ashes hundred that eventually proved decisive after Brad Haddin let a catch slip in Cardiff back in 2015. It’s not far-fetched to suggest that Root might have just played the reverse role in a similarly decisive Ashes hundred eight years later.
While Bairstow enjoyed a better Test behind the stumps at Lord’s, two more dropped catches will heighten the scrutiny over his suitability to be the side’s gloveman over Ben Foakes. Bairstow missed four chances at Edgbaston and two more on the first day at Headingley; England were flexible with their batting order to accommodate an extra bowler for the third Test after there were concerns over Ben Stokes’ fitness. Should Stokes be able to bowl again at Old Trafford, could they not do the same to accommodate their best available wicketkeeper? Bairstow’s unreliability behind the stumps has already cost England dearly this series – England’s best team surely contains Bairstow as specialist batter and Ben Foakes with the gloves. It was a combination that worked well in 2022.
England’s sloppiness in the field is in stark contrast to Australia’s ruthless efficiency. Their cordon gobbles up – almost literally in Alex Carey’s case today – anything that comes their way. When there is an Australian edge, there is a hope that it is taken. When there is an English edge, there is an expectation that a wicket will fall. There is no moral failing in letting chances go by. You can speculate over whether more focused preparation before the series would have helped a side short on red-ball match practice, but equally, there have been several England sides in years gone by with no shortage of match practice who have been similarly slack in the field. Whatever the reason for the discrepancy in chance conversion, it continues to be one of the most obvious differences between the team.
