After England bowled Australia out for 179 on a stop-start first day at Headingley, Michael Holding assesses the performance of the hosts' bowlers as a slightly slower Jofra Archer claimed his first Test five-for…
It was a great day for Jofra Archer, taking six wickets, but he certainly wasn't bowling as quickly as he did at Lord's. He said on interview he didn't feel that he had to rather than it being an instruction or as a result of wear and tear on his body from the last Test.
It certainly worked for him today but you can't just go around and find someone who bowls 95-96mph, so if you have a bowler with that ability, I'd want to make sure they use it more often than not. It's not something you can go outside and buy, if you haven't got that ability, you haven't got it.
Everyone looks at Archer and says 'he does it so easily', nobody knows where the pace comes from, he looks so relaxed. It looks easy and relaxed but your body still goes through a lot of strain to bowl fast and people have got to appreciate that.
England haven't really used Archer in long spells in this game so far. At one point when 18 overs had been bowled, he'd bowled half but he hadn't bowled all nine on the trot because of the various delays.
What I am more worried about is that he bowled so many overs in the last Test match and then there were only three days in between that match and this one before he has to come out and try to repeat it. That is what I'm worried about.
I am glad someone like him has come along, though, so that people recognise what real pace is! Not people bowling 83-84mph and thinking they are fast. What Jofra Archer is doing is real pace. Bowling 85mph is OK but people don't charge down the pitch to fast bowling and all of those 84-85mph bowlers have had batsmen charging down the pitch at them. No one has done that to Archer and they won't - they can't!
I thought England bowled OK on day one but I wouldn't go beyond OK, to be honest. I think the conditions under which they were bowling, the England captain having sent Australia in to bat, you'd have expected quite a few more wickets earlier in the day. They got some early wickets but I don't think the bowling was spot on.
A lot of balls went past the outside edge and people will say 'oh that is brilliant bowling' but if you're doing that and the ball is going past the outside edge continuously you need to get a lesson from that and think 'perhaps I need to pitch the ball up a little bit further so it doesn't do as much before it gets to the bat'.
I don't think they really did that - and as Ben Stokes found out, a full toss is far better than a short ball when the ball is moving so much! It was only later in the day once they did start to bowl that bit fuller that they got the wickets. I think they could have done a little bit better but after that flurry of wickets in the evening session, England are still in a good position.
I wouldn't want to be the selectors when Jimmy Anderson is fit again. I'm not sure who I'd be looking to drop from the team, unless you leave out the spinner and go with all seamers. That is going to be a very difficult decision for the selectors because Stuart Broad is bowling extremely well, he has done throughout the series so far, you can't drop Archer and Chris Woakes has done well, not only with the ball but with the bat as well at times.
With the spinner, Jack Leach, that is four bowlers and they can't drop Stokes! I don't know what they're going to be doing but it is a good problem to have.
Watch day two of the third Test between England and Australia at Headingley from 10am on Sky Sports The Ashes and Main Event.