Respected English broadcaster Jonathan Agnew has roasted Australia’s bowling line-up, calling it “second division” and labelling it the worst attack in more than a decade.
While he reserved praise for the “brilliant” Mitchell Starc, former international Agnew blasted the performance of fellow seamers Michael Neser, Brendan Doggett and Scott Boland on the opening day.
“This is not a top notch Australian attack, it really isn’t,” Agnew said on the BBC’s Test Match Special (TMS) podcast.
“It is very much second division apart from Mitchell Starc of course.”
Like most commentators, Agnew found the absence of Nathan Lyon baffling, especially given the tactics of stand-in captain Steve Smith, who instructed his men to bowl short for much of the day.
But without Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the arsenal, Agnew rated the pace men as “bog standard”.
“I think that bowling attack of Australia’s is the poorest I’ve seen since (20)10-11,” he said.
“It’s pretty bog standard, trundley fast-medium, which half the day was instructed to bowl bouncers which actually is not their natural game at all.
“We take Mitchell Starc out of that — he’s brilliant, he’s an outstanding world-class bowler — but the rest of it I thought was real second division.
“And Smith’s tactic to get them running in and bowling bouncers was a bit unkind really because it’s not what they’re used to doing.
“Doggett is a pitch it up, swing the ball away sort of bowler and he’s running in bowling half-trackers and has gone for five-and-a-half an over.”
Agnew’s fellow TMS panellist Glenn McGrath said there was “not a lot of fear” in the Gabba pitch and the Aussies were bowling, late in the day in particular, with a soft pink ball.
But he was also disappointed with some aspects of the bowling.
“I was a little bit disappointed, they didn’t bowl good bouncers the Australians, they didn’t mix up the pace,” McGrath said.
Agnew said the mediocrity of the attack – Starc apart – made England’s loss in Perth even more frustrating.
“You could say that was the case in Perth too. (Starc) was head and shoulders above the rest and that’s why the frustration,” he said of a team without Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon.
“Australia is vulnerable. It is vulnerable. And we know that’s the case, we know their batting is vulnerable.”
Originally published as Australia vs England: Second Ashes Test day 3 live from the Gabba
