England fast bowler Jofra Archer has been lampooned after turning up for the second Ashes Test against Australia with a pillow tucked under his arm in a move blasted as “a shocking look”.
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Archer was pictured arriving at the Gabba in Brisbane with the pillow for day three on Saturday when Australia resumed at 378-6 in reply to England’s first innings 334.
He presumably thought Australia’s last four wickets would fall quickly and he could have a nap.
Instead, the hosts piled on another 133 runs before being dismissed for 511, with Archer consigned to hours in the field rather than any shut-eye.
“Sorry, but that’s a shocking look,” Australia great Matthew Hayden said on commentary for Australia’s Channel Seven.
“If I was a batsman, I tell you what I would be doing, I would be digging in … Forever.
“You would be looking over that and saying, ‘you will never sleep on that, not any part of this day are you going to see that, not even in the night’.”
The Guardian newspaper called the image “an awkward symbol of England’s Ashes nightmare”.
“Bowler’s creature comforts emblematic of a touring side seen as paying the price for taking a laid-back approach,” it added.
England were crushed in the first Test at Perth by eight wickets inside two days and were staring at another defeat Sunday in Brisbane.
The Australians ripped through the English top order late on Day 3, taking five wickets for 44 runs as the visitors slumped to 6/134 in their second innings, still trailing by 43 runs.
Michael Neser, Mitch Starc and Scott Boland all took two wickets in an action-packed final session after Australia were bowled out for 511.
Skipper Ben Stokes (4*) and Will Jacks (4*) are the two who will resume at the crease and the only notable threats left to bat for the visitors.
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Unsurprisingly, the England side copped a barrage from former players and UK media overnight.
Former skipper turned pundit Michael Vaughan and BBC chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew both criticised the England squad’s poor depth and how the lack of genuine replacement options is causing complacency within the side.
“There is no spare keeper, I think Jamie Smith is a wonderful talent, but he is struggling. Ben Duckett looks scratchy and edgy at the top. Ollie Pope is all over the place, once again,” Vaughan said on BBC’s Test Match Special.
“You can’t just keep dipping into Joe Root’s well – ‘go on Joe, go get us another 100’. It is not just possible.
“I worry about this psychological damage of this last two days. Not just for the batters, but particularly the bowlers, who had so much time out there and they just didn’t look like they were going to get wickets.”
In worrying signs for the visitors, England’s second-tier team are being thumped by Australia A in a four-day match being played concurrently to the second Ashes Test.
Agnew says that the fact no one outside of England’s first choice side is knocking the door down has created a major problem for the touring side, especially if they fall into an ugly 2-0 hole.
“There is no culpability, there are no ramifications, there’s no question of anybody being dropped,” Agnew said.
There’s nobody to put pressure on any of these players, so you just go out and bat as you want to play.
“There should be a selection in which these players are being put under pressure, and if you fail time and again doing the same thing, you’re gone, you’re dropped.”
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