Bairstow emulates Stokes as Aussies again rue tactics

Of the many reflections on Australia's 2019 Headingley nightmare, none could have been as relevant for the review Pat Cummins will do on his own captaincy after the Old Trafford Test than one of Usman Khawaja's pre-tour musings.

Where some categorised Ben Stokes' hand as a one-off miracle, Khawaja foresaw Pat Cummins being put in similar scenarios to the one his predecessor Tim Paine struggled with four years ago.

"I'm not having a swipe at anyone tactically but we probably just weren't on the ball enough," Khawaja, speaking to cricket.com.au in the lead-in to Australia's current Ashes campaign, said in reference to Stokes' innings, which has been labelled by some as the best in Test history.

"We probably didn't attack 'Stokesy' enough on the third, fourth ball (of overs) to try to make him play something ridiculous. We kept the field out. We probably could have been a bit more attacking in between there.

"It's lessons you learn from that. It's probably something Patty will have to deal with. But he was there, so I'm sure he gained the experience from last time."

Indeed, that familiarity with Stokes' powers showed in Cummins' first two brushes as captain with his opposite number's ability to self-elevate from merely dangerous middle-order batter to superhuman six-hitter and strike-farmer.

At Lord's, Australia withstood a succession of Stokes blows as a more consistent and coherent strategy eventually saw him dismissed trying to slog up the slope. Even at the return to Headingley, when England's skipper played a match (and possibly series) turning hand of 80, the faith Cummins put in rookie spinner Todd Murphy paid off with a trio of chances created against the England skipper and the third finally taken.

But at Old Trafford on Friday, with the identity of their late-innings foe morphing from one redhead to another, Australia appeared to have unlearnt many of the lessons Khawaja had foreshadowed being vital to their pursuit of a rare Ashes triumph abroad.

If Australia had any designs of pinching a comeback victory in the fourth Test of a series they lead 2-1, they were swiftly dashed by Jonny Bairstow's ascendant 99no, which took his team from a position of strength to one that might ensure they only need to bat once.  

England were 158 runs in front when the last of Bairstow's top-order teammates was dismissed. When he begrudgingly walked off after Jimmy Anderson had been pinned lbw following a back-breaking 66-run last-wicket stand, their first-innings advantage had swelled to 275.

The 118 runs that came from England's final 15.4 overs was five more than Australia managed in triple the overs before stumps and for the same number of wickets.

It was the final straw for an innings that Australia have conceded will require critical analysis, with Josh Hazlewood labelling England's onslaught as "a good learning experience" for Cummins.

"He hasn't been captain for a long period of time and we've probably had the rub of the green for the whole period he's been captain, for most of it," Hazlewood said.

"He'll no doubt sit down with the coaches and go through a few things.

"But he's a very quick learner. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

"But in those positions he is still very calm. It's very much 'we'll do this plan for now and see how that goes', and then we'll change plans – it's nothing flustered at any stage."

Given Cummins was the bowler who Stokes hit for the winning boundary in Leeds four years ago, the cat-and-mouse game he was playing with Bairstow should have been familiar.

Like Stokes, Bairstow picked the right moments to attempt to clear boundary fielders, belting four sixes that roused the Manchester crowd and left his opponents harried.

And just like Jack Leach in 2019, James Anderson enjoyed the rails run as he was consistently left with only one or two balls to face at the end of an over.

At times, Australia's fielders seemed unclear on the strategy to counter Bairstow's strategic nous. Marnus Labuschagne raised his arms in confusion towards the end of one Cummins over, uncertain whether to come in off the boundary.

His skipper was clearly juggling several thoughts at once as he balanced bowling and captaincy duties, with Bairstow ensuring things gradually spiralled out of Australia's control.

"It's just trying to limit his scoring and try different things … to keep the tail-ender on strike for the next over," said Hazlewood. "I thought we did it reasonably well.

"Those situations are pretty tough. We're seeing it more and more these days with how good batsmen are in T20 and one-day cricket, we're seeing it happen almost every innings."

What was less familiar was an inventive Bairstow ploy to steal the strike back after he failed to get a single towards the end of a previous over.

With Australia almost exclusively bowling short at Anderson, Bairstow on three occasions ran a bye after the ball went straight into Alex Carey's gloves.

It certainly showed more attentiveness from Bairstow than he had shown at Lord's when he was stumped wandering in the opposite direction from the striker's end stumps.

Hazlewood suggested they might consider an even more defensive approach in future.

"Do you just bowl wide and down leg and really stop him from scoring? Or do you roll the dice and bounce him and try to get a wicket that way, or keep bowling hard length and hopefully one goes up?" he said.

"At the end of the day, you've got to get everyone out, but are there times we potentially could just bowl away from them the whole time? I think there's a time to do both.

"It's just weighing that up, and when to do that, and with the ball count to try and get number 11 on strike. We saw a new tactic again today of running on bouncers (when the ball goes) through to the keeper.

"Everything seems to be open these days to do and everyone keeps changing."

It begs the question as to whether Australia must do likewise.