TOP SPIN AT THE TEST: David Warner blazes a new trail in England – but so does the Ashes debutant who claimed his wicket
England may have enjoyed a silver lining in the form of a heaven-sent Joe Root seeing the former captain claim the wickets of Travis Head and Cameron Green, but it was otherwise a dismal day for Ben Stokes’ side.
Australia looked supremely confident despite losing the coin toss, led by a solid Steve Smith presence that didn’t go out for Day 85.
In ideal bowling conditions, England failed to show off the deadly qualities synonymous with a full-fledged Bazball attack with some fumbles in the field allowing for consistent Australian wins.
The home team will have to climb a mountain on Thursday morning to regain hope of an equalizer.
Here, Mail Sport’s LAWRENCE-BOOTH shares key stats from the opening day of the second test.
David Warner blew his demons and achieved his highest score in England since 2015
Josh Tongue (right) made history on his debut in a shining spark for England in North London
David Warner’s 66 was his highest score in England since he achieved 85 at The Oval in 2015.
Between then and now he had made 184 runs in 14 innings, including scores of 43 and one against India in the World Test Championship final, averaging 13.
Steve Smith became the first of 17 players to reach 9,000 test runs in less than 100 games – this is his 99th.
In terms of innings, only Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara got there in less – 172, to Smith’s 174.
Steve Smith didn’t finish Day 85 after a solid opening day with the bat in the capital
Smith is the fourth Australian to reach the milestone, following Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.
Josh Tongue became the first England player to bowl both Australia’s openers in the same innings since 1968, when John Snow dismissed John Inverarity and Bob Cowper at Headingley.
England bowled 12 no-balls on the first day, bringing the tally for the series to 35.
Ollie Robinson was one of the England bowlers to send in no-balls on Wednesday
The 23 they bowled at Edgbaston was the most they have bowled in a Test since 2006.
Australia, on the other hand, only overshot four times in the first test.
For all the Bazball talk, the fastest scoring batsman in this series so far is Travis Head, who now has 143 runs off 160 balls, with a batting frequency of 89.
Next up is Harry Brook, whose 78 runs at Edgbaston amounted to a rate of 87 per 100 balls.
Travis Head raced to claim half a century and made an impressive pair with Smith