How many New Year’s resolutions fail to make January 3?
Pledges to become a better version of yourself feel meaningful in the making, but altogether more daunting in the following through. And in the early days of any new year — before life has settled back down into its familiar, comfortable, droning rhythms — self-sacrifice and commitment can easily become February’s problem.
Both Australia and Pakistan experienced this struggle on day one at the SCG. There was excellent, aspirational cricket on display here, but also play more akin to a sleepy afternoon on the couch, weighed down by another overzealous holiday lunch.
With the series won and lost back in Melbourne last week, motivation would have to come internally for the weary tourists. On the evidence of a dismal first hour, it seemed like too great an ask.
Australia’s fast bowlers, buoyed by a ball that swung more than any other so far this summer, produced a typically unrelenting spell that asked questions their opposing batters simply weren’t interested in finding answers to.
Openers Abdullah Shafique and debutant Saim Ayub managed two balls each for the addition of zero runs before edging behind the wicket. Babar Azam fought but got a good one from Pat Cummins, more than can be said for Saud Shakeel.
At 4-47, Saturday tee times were being booked.
The morning crowd at the SCG was sparse, though it would fill up throughout the day. This has been sold as David Warner Week, coinciding with his final Test, but had Cummins won the toss the opener would not have had the greatest audience for his final show.
Perhaps the missing patrons were all out on the streets of Sydney searching for Warner’s missing Baggy Green. A manhunt is underway, and even the prime minister joined in the emotional pleas for the hat’s safe return.
Cap or no cap, Warner would have expected to be batting pretty early on day one as Pakistan’s top order vacated the premises, but by now we have learned there is a backbone to this touring side.
The Aussies didn’t deviate far from the successful plans of the morning session, but on a relatively docile pitch and with an ageing ball, Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman made a game of it.
Rizwan in particular is a confounding batter. He does his expansive hitting first and then digs in for his innings, rather than the far more conventional opposite. His counter-attack initially rocked Australia back, and by the time it recovered the keeper was locked in.
It wasn’t until this point that Australia’s plans changed, as they made their proverbial move back to the couch with a bag of chips, happy to take the easier option.
As they tend to do when faced with a stubborn low-order opposition or a defiant tail-end, the Aussies bowled short. Exclusively.
If you could make a single criticism of this famed bowling attack — which now stands alone as the most prolific quartet in Test cricket history — it is this.
These are turgid periods of play, when highly skilled and tactically savvy fast bowlers put all intricacy aside, chuck every fielder on the fence and hope one of the bouncers gets top-edged to the right part of the ground.
It normally ends up working, sort of. Eventually the wickets will fall, as they threatened to do under heavy cloud in the evening session at the SCG.
But it didn’t work on Wednesday. Aamir Jamal picked up where Rizwan left off and played an innings of great substance as Australia fell from a position of unquestioned dominance to something resembling the back foot.
Once the Pakistan innings finally closed at 313, any early Australian advantage had been lost. Washed away by a session of thoughtless bowling and opportunistic batting.
The same tactical blind spot has caused bigger problems in bigger Tests than this one. Headingley 2019 sound familiar? Or its slightly less horrifying sequel at Lord’s last year?
By the time Mitchell Starc came on to bowl an entire over to number 11 Mir Hamza and proceeded to bowl exactly one ball in the batter’s half, and zero in line with the stumps, the whole thing had long since jumped the shark.
If we’re talking resolutions, let that be Australia’s — figure out a new tactic for bowling to tailenders, and let it more closely resemble the brilliance reserved for top-order superstars.
Credit should nonetheless go to Jamal, who batted with bravery and more class than you’d come to expect from a number nine for his 82.
His bowling has been generally fantastic all series, and the heart he has displayed with the bat will be enough for Pakistan to head home confident it has secured a key piece of its future.
There was a look of befuddlement on Cummins’ face as he left the field of play, sensing the game might not have slipped away from him but the momentum certainly had. On the outside it felt avoidable, but only Cummins will know if it was the execution or the plan itself that let him down.
Having safely, albeit barely, negotiated six balls to get to stumps Warner will get his day in the sun on Thursday. The crowd will arrive knowing precisely what they came for, and Davey will set about matching the occasion.
But while the Warner Tour deals with the finality of retirement, Australia and Pakistan can instead look back on the day as one to learn from.
It’s early enough in the year for the wrongs to be righted, to start chipping away at self-improvement. For both sides, there can be little doubt where the improvement needs to come.