Joe Root has defended Jamie Smith’s dismissal to Marnus Labuschagne’s part-time seamers with England’s greatest ever run scorer insisting it was part of a tactical ploy that anticipated difficult batting conditions against a forthcoming second new ball.
Perhaps more than any other Bazball-induced strategic misstep this Ashes series, Smith’s exit to a time-filling Labuschagne bouncer clocked at under 130kph infuriated England fans and left pundits in disbelief.
Australia captain Steve Smith brought on Labuschagne and Travis Head in a bid to improve his side’s poor over-rate (Labuschagne ran back to his mark between balls) leading up to the second new ball becoming available on day two.
With the bulk of the fielders on the leg-side, Jamie Smith backed away attempting to flat bat Labuschagne down the ground, only for the mis-hit to find the deep cover fielder.
“I know this is the way they play (and say) ‘This is how they want to approach it’, but you cannot honestly tell me he’s going to walk back into the changeroom and be patted on the back,” was Australia’s other captain Alyssa Healy’s summary of the prevailing mood.
The former England fast bowler Steven Finn on TNT labelled it “brainless” batting.
Root, on 118no when the part-timers were brought on to bowl, explained he and Smith, who was closing in on two hours at the crease when he was dismissed, sensed it was an opportunity to attack Australia.
The veteran batter’s read that the SCG pitch had become harder to bat on due to the heavy roller firming up indentations played into their calculations.
“It was completely different that second new ball, and it was about almost maximising that 10-over period ahead of facing that new ball,” Root told reporters after extending his second ton of the series to 160.
“You eke out an extra 20 runs that could be the difference later on down the line. So there was method behind what we were trying to do. We’re trying to move the game forward all the time.
“When it doesn’t come off, it can look a certain way, but you’re never playing to get out. As a batter, your job is not to survive, it’s to score runs. You can’t win games just surviving. You have to score more runs than the opposition.
“It’s making sure you have a good method in how you want to achieve that.”
Root’s justification jars not only with his own reluctance to hit the ball in the air at any stage of his innings, while still scoring a healthy strike-rate of 66, but also the fact he and No.8 Will Jacks then successfully negotiated 11 overs of the second new ball. That came with Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc admittedly finding considerable seam movement.
But with Travis Head and Jake Weatherald subsequently blazing 57 off a similar number of overs (12.2) to begin their first innings showed the surface was far from a minefield against a hard ball.
All told, England added 41 runs in the nine overs before the second new ball, which also included Beau Webster bowling an over of off-spin instead of his regular medium pacers.
Root said Smith averaging over 40 from his 19 Tests underscored that he is a capable batter, but conceded there would be no more frustrated batter than the 25-year-old wicketkeeper who has underwhelmed on this tour.
“It wasn’t necessarily a case of saying, ‘Right, we’re going to try and go at 15 an over for the next phase,” said Root. “But you see an opportunity, and you back yourself to make the right decisions.
“Sometimes you just make a mistake, and you have to learn from it and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again.
“That’s the art of the game sometimes. It’s not being too hard on yourself, it’s not being too soft on yourself, it’s being real and understanding what you need to do to get the best out of yourself.
“With what he’s achieved in his career to date I’m sure he’ll find a way of getting in that frame of mind next time he goes out and plays.”
Labuschagne was in the thick of the action on Monday, having later riled up England skipper Ben Stokes while he was batting in a heated exchange just before stumps.
Stokes had the last laugh when he then dismissed Labuschagne two runs short of a half-century.
“It’s just the fact that he’s such a strong competitor that he can get under your skin,” said Labuschagne’s state teammate Michael Neser. “That’s just Marnus for you.
“He loves bowling. We’ve seen it in Shield cricket. It’s not a surprise to us, because he’s actually done that role quite often in Shield cricket and got a fair few wickets bowling short.
“It’s not like it’s just a fluke. He’s actually practiced it. The one thing about Marnus is his quicker ball is actually quite a lot quicker – he was in the 130s (kph) and then he can bowl anywhere from 112 to 130, so it’s quite hard to get a read on him when he’s going like that.”
2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes
First Test: Australia won by eight wickets
Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets
Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs
Fourth Test: England won by four wickets
Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT
Australia squad (fifth Test): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue
