Smith feels Root's pain as rival skippers' fortunes turn

It must have seemed unimaginable two and a half years ago, but the wheel has turned so markedly for Steve Smith and Joe Root that the former is now publicly sympathising with the latter.

When the Ashes combatants previously locked horns in the UK summer of 2019, it was Smith being subjected to a level of scrutiny so intense some feared it might break him.

That was when the fallen batting hero was returning to Test cricket after more than a year out of the game due to a suspension that also cost him the national captaincy.

As the opposing team's skipper, Root could have channelled the mood of English crowds who seized every opportunity to remind Smith of his indiscretion but instead he chose to limit himself to acknowledgement of the Australian's pure batting ability and plans they might employ to get him out.

As events transpired, those plans pretty much amounted to nought as Smith averaged 110 across three and a half Tests which led Root to let loose his most savage sledge at the man who was expected to buckle beneath the weight of British opprobrium.

"He's been a pain, really," Root observed with a knowing smile and trademark twinkle in his eyes at series end.

Fast forward 27 months and that pain has been transferred metaphorically and literally to Root who stands a solitary defeat away from equalling West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd's unwanted record for leading a team to the most Test losses in Australia (seven).

The excruciating ache brought on by Sunday's pair of blows to "an unpleasant area", as Root described it tonight, will doubtless pass.

But the discomfort that comes from seeing his team thumped in the first two Vodafone Tests with little time to regroup and re-assess before the next will linger unless drastic remedial action is taken.

"We need to learn, and we need to learn fast," Root said in the aftermath of England's 275-run loss that might have been far heftier had his lower-order not dug in and pushed the Test into its final session.

"The frustration within our dressing room is that we've not quite executed some basic things well enough for the second game in a row, and we need to respond very quickly.

"The disappointing thing about this week is that we made the same mistakes as last week.

"The most disappointing thing for me is the amount of no-balls we keep bowling, and the number of chances we missed again, after last week."

Root's assessment that England are better than the nine-wicket defeat at Brisbane and the 275-run walloping at Adelaide might be so, but he was also quite sure where the blame for their sub-standard first innings with the ball should largely lie.

Having opted to leave out their fastest bowler (Mark Wood) in preference to their two most experienced and successful Test seamers (James Anderson and Stuart Broad), it's not unreasonable to assume England knew precisely what they would get from their all-pace attack.

But the bowlers' inability to challenge the Australia batter's stumps on the first day, and then again the next afternoon as they built a formidable total of 473 meant England were chasing the game long before they were rolled for half their rivals' first innings total.

Root said it was easy to suggest in hindsight they had selected the wrong team, and added it was too early to speculate on possible changes for the next Test starting at the MCG in less than a week because it's "probably not the right time to go into that and make emotional decisions".

But a couple of his senior quicks will feel they have been placed squarely on notice.

"If you look at the first innings in particular, I thought we were a little bit short with the ball, we didn't challenge them enough, we allowed them to leave and they left very well again," Root said of his bowlers and Australia's batters, notably Smith and player of the match Marnus Labuschagne.

"You're looking at half a metre (in length) at times.

"And if you look at the number of times they played and missed and we beat the bat, it can be frustrating and you think you're doing the right thing.

"We just have to be that little bit braver, get the ball up there and accept that every now and then we're going to get driven.

"I expect them to (respond).

"We've got three games, three massive games with the Ashes on the line now and if that's not motivation enough to go out there and put performances in, then I don't know what is."

Adding to Root's headache is the pressure he carries as the team's pre-eminent batter, and the responsibility he feels to inspire them as a leader every chance that presents.

It's why he was "really cross" at his dismissal from the final ball of the fourth day's play, which meant he wasn't able to arrive at the ground today, strap on the pads and lead his men by both deed and character.

But Smith, who would surely admit to placing a similar burden upon himself during his captaincy tenure, offered some consoling advice to his rival skipper even though the Australian is only occupying the top job on an interim basis until Pat Cummins returns.

"There's always going to be critics out there that critique your performance as a captain," said Smith, who will hand back the leadership reins in Melbourne all going as planned.

"I guess for him (Root), the best advice I could give is just trust yourself, and do everything you can to help your team grow and be as successful as you can be.

"Sometimes as a captain you get out-played by the opposition and there's not a great deal you can do.

"But just reflecting or seeing what you can do better is always important, that's part of being a player or a leader."

Smith's insights might not offer immediate salve to Root, who led England on the 2017-18 Ashes campaign where they lost 4-0 and then oversaw the drawn home series in 2019 that was sufficient for Australia to retain the urn.

Nor will he sleep any easier knowing the Australians have identified the way they believe they can quell Root's influence with the bat and, unlike England, have a bowling attack capable of consistently executing it.

"In England, I think you can play with that open face and score a lot of runs behind the wicket because the wickets don't have that bounce and you can control your hands a lot more a lot of the time," Smith said of Root's well-documented off-side batting strength.

"He's looked pretty good each time he's come to the wicket (this series) to be fair, and to get him out when we did last night was huge.

"He's a quality player and we're going to have to keep pressure on him and keep bowling good balls consistently."

That vote of belief from the "pain" who so tormented England's captain two-and-a-bit years ago might possibly further settle Root's troubled mind as he begins plotting for the Boxing Day Test and the mountain England must now climb.

However, Root also believes it's not impossible for his men to defy history and become the first England team ever to come from two Tests down to win a five-match Ashes series.

"I don't think Australia are that much better than us in these conditions like the scorelines might have suggested that in these two games," he said after his agonising few days in Adelaide.

"We are better than we have played.

"We have to believe."

And if Smith's triumph of 2019 - which saw him leave The Oval after his final innings to respectful applause of England fans who had delighted in goading him over the preceding months, was built on any raw material - it was belief.

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: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena