Changing places: Skippers shift roles as Test turns

It's not so long past – Wednesday evening of this week, for the sticklers – that the captains' blazers of the respective Vodafone Ashes leaders were fitting in markedly different fashion.

In Australia's dressing room, Pat Cummins might have been rightly admiring his newly tailored accessory as an instantly perfect fit having completed career-best Ashes figures in flattening the old enemy in barely 50 overs on his first day in office.

For his vastly more experienced leadership rival, the collar of Joe Root's jacket was surely giving him an uncomfortable prickliness around the neck which squeezed ever tighter as criticism about England's selection choices and his decision to bat first were aired in both hemispheres.

Fast forward 48 hours, and the men resemble participants in one of those instant makeover/ wardrobe swap reality TV shows, assuming such an absurdity exists out there somewhere.

While not yet able to preen in the mirror given his team remains 58 runs in arrears with two days to play, Root can at least breathe more freely having not only seen his men mount a spirited rebuttal to their day one submission but actively leading their fightback with an unbeaten 86.

That came amid a so-far-unbeaten third-wicket stand of 159 with Dawid Malan (80 not out) that enabled England to bat the entire final session of day three against the Cummins-led Australia attack without losing a wicket, let alone an entire plot.

So stark was the turnaround, Malan – who admits he believed his Test career was finished before being recalled to the team last August after a three-year absence – took time for a mid-pitch chat with his skipper during their union to marvel at how much fun he was having.

"I actually said to Rooty when we were both on 40 or 50, the Barmy Army were singing and I said to him 'I've really missed this," Malan revealed at day's end.

"I've missed having someone trying to blow my head off all the time, and the crowd going, the adrenaline going and playing against the best bowlers going around.

"Test cricket is the pinnacle, so to be able to stand out there wearing an England shirt, I'm so proud to do that.

"And especially to do it here at the Gabba in front of everyone, it's really good fun."

Malan also conceded it wasn't quite so much fun a couple of days ago when England's entire innings occupied less time than the left-hander spent at the crease today, and some commentators were invoking the ghosts of their whitewashed Ashes tours of 2006-07 and 2013-14.

While noting the shift does not yet see England in a position of strength given fourth innings run chases at the Gabba are also hauntingly recent – India famously managed 329 earlier this year – the capacity to "park" Wednesday's batting debacle has proved crucial.

If England can forge at least one more 100-plus partnership tomorrow, and pull together a further 250 to 300 runs across the day, Malan believes fortune's wheel will have turned fairly close to a complete circle.

Further reassurance is derived from Root's status as the world's current top-ranked Test batter who is enjoying the form of his life, which also helps explain why the burden of captaincy has migrated from the visitors' dressing room to the home team in near-record time.

"He always looks to score and he seems to somehow find a way to put the pressure back on the bowlers, and his method just seems to work everywhere he plays," Malan said of his skipper.

"We spoke this morning about making sure we go out and express ourselves.

"The last thing we want to do is just be sitting ducks, and go out and not score.

"The chat was ... to go out and play the way we want to play, be as positive as we need to be.

"After what we did in the first innings, we almost needed to park that and put it aside - this was going to be a fresh innings."

It certainly presented an altogether fresh challenge for Cummins, whose Test captaincy debut came sprinkled in magic dust whereby every time he pulled a lever, it yielded an instantly beneficial result.

That was not the case today, even though it fleetingly appeared history might repeat with England almost losing opener Rory Burns once more to Mitchell Starc's opening over (saved by a shrewd review), only for him to succumb half an hour later.

But the subsequent batters refused to drop like they had under Wednesday's heavy cloud, and as the sun shone and the pitch flattened and the humidity engulfed, the things that fell Australia's way in the first innings were suddenly aiding England in the second.

Edges dropped frustratingly short of catchers behind the wickets, miscued strokes landed even more infuriatingly out of the reach of those stationed further away.

Then there was the review for a catch off the toe of Malan's bat (when on 16) that the England man claimed he missed "by a mile" but Australia were convinced had grazed the blade, even when the available technology was deemed to show insufficient evidence to overturn the on-field ruling.

Cummins marshalled his bowlers astutely in consultation with his lieutenants, and in search of the breakthroughs that had arrived with such regularity just two days earlier.

But as the evening shadows stretched longer, so too did the gaps between the visitors' false strokes.

Marnus Labuschagne, one of five bowlers employed during the final session as Root and Malan's partnership stretched beyond three and half hours, assessed Cummins' first captaincy encounter with adversity to be beyond reproach, if unusual in some respects.

"It's different when your captain's at mid-on, and you're used to the captain being the keeper," said Labuschagne whose Test tenure prior to Wednesday was served entirely under Cummins' predecessor, Tim Paine.

"It's quite loud out there, so there's a lot more hand signals and we look like mimes because you can't really hear that much.

"But he did a great job.

"I thought he rotated the bowlers really well, he bowled well himself and I thought (all-rounder) Cameron Green bowled really well, and Starcy got that key wicket of (opener Haseeb) Hameed who looked really good."

Labuschagne also batted away suggestions Josh Hazlewood – the bowler who has dismissed Root more times in Test cricket than any other – was not deployed at all during the luckless final session because of injury.

Apparently, that decision was made with an eye to the arrival of the second new-ball tomorrow morning when batting is likely to become more difficult and fresh bowlers will be vital.

Labuschagne also noted the mood in the Australia dressing room remained calm despite England's bold fightback, and that this afternoon's events represented "just a day at the office" that invariably comes with the territory of top-level Test cricket.

However, he added those office chores don't extend to him appreciating the aesthetic and technical skills that have carried Root to an England record 1541 runs (and still counting) this calendar year.

"He played Nathan Lyon very well," Labuschagne said of the England captain, who is eyeing a first Test century in Australia.

"He's obviously a beautiful player of spin bowling and pace bowling.

"But it's not my job now to admire Joe Root's innings.

"It's my job to find holes in his game and try and help the team to get him out because the Ashes are on the line and we have to keep the pressure on."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: December 8-12, The Gabba

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, TBC