In the warm-up match, almost every key England player has shown signs of positive form. Bairstow continued where he left off in Sydney, when he hit England’s sole century in a tumultuous Ashes campaign.
In the first innings of the Sydney test match, he scored 113 and in the second, 41 runs. However, he picked up a thumb injury and missed the last test match.
Bairstow batted beautifully throughout the day and played some amazing shots. He completed his century shortly before lunch break. Soon after, the visitors declared their innings on 466/5.
After the declaration, it was time for a test of England’s new bowling attack. Currently, two top English bowlers – James Anderson and Stuart Broad – both were controversially snubbed for this trip.
By the end of the day, the hosts had reached 48-2, with two breakthroughs. The first wicket came out as run out by Overton on his own delivery. Jack Leach picked the second wicket of Sheyne Moseley who tried to play a drive but failed to find a connection of the ball with the bat and was bowled.
For England, Jack Leach was the successful bowler of the day picking up a wicket and economically giving 5 runs in 9 overs. Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson started the new ball but they were unable to cause any real havoc.
In their spell of 14 overs, they didn’t create any big chance except a caught-behind shout off Robinson.
Certainly, Joe Root would have loved to bring on some extra pace to the 22 yards. However, Mark Wood is not playing that match and Ben Stokes is not playing as a leading bowler.
Bairstow started the day four not out and played a well balanced inning. As his playing style is, he anticipated the home side with 13 boundaries and a six in two powerful batting periods.
Altogether, six English batsmen scored half-centuries. Indeed, it was the need of the moment to overcome the disaster of the Ashes. Woakes would have been the 7th batsman to hit a half-century on his 33rd birthday, but he was called off at 49 when Root called his side in.