ENGvsAUS Ashes 2023 1st Test: Three reasons why England faced faced narrow 2-wicket defeat vs Australia

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Hosts England faced a heartbreak 2-wicket defeat against Australia the Ashes 2023 first Test against Australia at the Edgbaston in Birmingham on Tuesday. Set a 281-run target, England had the upper hand till the end of Day four.

At the start of Day 5, Australia were in need of 174 runs with seven wickets in hand. Biggest threats Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith were back in the hut already.

England continued to create pressure and reduced Australia to 227/8. Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood were the only three bowlers left as Australia needed another 55 runs to register a victory. However, the unexpected as Australia captain Cummins and Lyon held their nerves to hand their team a memorable two-wicket win.

Let's have a look at three reasons why England lost the first Ashes 2023.

Too much of 'Bazball' application backfires

England won the toss and opted to bat first to score 393 runs at a run rate of 5.04. However, a surprising move from them came when Ben Stokes declared with two wickets still remaining. Joe Root was unbeaten on 118 at that moment and was accompanied by a well set Ollie Robinson (17* off 31). The duo had already partnered for 43 runs off 45 balls.

But Australia were invited to bat in the final minutes of Day 1 and they managed to go back unscathed with an overnight score of 14/0. Neither did England get any wicket as must be their plan and nor did they add a few extra runs which could have come handy for them on the final day.

Declaring the innings was quite absurd and Root and Robinson were already playing with the aggressive 'Bazball' method and scoring quick runs. It would have been ideal for England to allow them to score as many runs as possible and get out while playing the brand of cricket they have totally emerged from.

Same was the case in the second innings. Despite being reduced to 27/ 2 after taking a slim 7-run win, England did not take the traditional route and continued to take the attack on the opposition. They were bundled out for 273 and defending the not very high total was always going to be a tough task for them.

Playing Anderson and Broad together

While Stuart Broad emerged as the leading wicket-taker for his side in the match, James Anderson could pick just one wicket after bowling 38 overs. Anderson remained out of action as Cummins and Lyons continued hurting England and getting closer to the target.

Ignoring very dangerous Matthew Potts to include both the veteran pacers came back to bite England. For the unknown, Potts is the third highest wicket-taker in the ongoing County Championship Division Two. While the top five-wicket takers have played seven matches each, Potts have just featured in five games this season and picked 30 wickets at an average of 21.16. His performance has fired Durham to the top of the table.

Moeen Ali's injury

Moeen Ali's Test comeback did not pay off. The left-arm spinner first leaked 147 runs in 33 overs to pick just two wickets. In the second innings, he could bowl only 14 overs (for one wicket) because of his finger injury.

His Australian counterpart picked eight wickets in the match (4 each in both the innings) and things would have been different if Ali, who came out of retirement, wasn't injured and undercooked because of the lack of red-ball practice. He played his last Test match in September 2021.