England, having 1-0 down in the five-match series, bowled some tight lengths throughout the first day but they couldn’t manage to get rid of Kangaroo tailenders. Interestingly, Root is the first ever captain to elect bowling in a day-night Test fixture.
Bayliss told BT Sports that he was happy with the decision and said “Very happy with his decision. It’s a well-documented fact that we’ve struggled to take wickets on flat ones and Joe wanted to give our bowlers the best opportunity to take 20 wickets in the match. Before the first rain break [on Saturday], I thought we were a little bit short but we came out after that and I thought we bowled pretty well yesterday.”
“We went past the bat a lot, but that’s the game. We’ve got to put up with that. On another day, an extra two or three nicks, it might have been a completely different story. That’s gone now and we’ve got to concentrate on our batting tomorrow,” he further added.
On the chances of Mark Wood’s arrival for Ashes, he replied “We haven’t actually spoken about it apart from the fact that we wanted to see him play in the Lions. He’s come through a match for the Lions when were up in Brisbane ourselves, I haven’t spoken to him after the game or to Andy Flower to see how he’s pulled up. First of all, before we contemplate [calling him up], he’s got to show his fitness, but also his match fitness as well.”
Meanwhile, England‘s decision to bowl first doesn’t look fruitful for them as Australian bowlers dismissed them for 227 and didn’t enforce the follow-on. Before the end of day 3, England bowlers roared back right into the contest and reduced Aussies reeling at 53/4 but their first innings lead makes it 268/4.
