NASSER HUSSAIN: England have put all their eggs in one basket in second Ashes Test v Australia

The first day of the second Test merely emphasised England’s need for a varied and balanced attack. You simply cannot put all your eggs in one basket.

Chris Silverwood and Joe Root should not have picked five English-type seamers just because they are playing a day-night Test in Adelaide.

They ended up having just under six hours of play in a variety of conditions and only 35 minutes at the end with a second new pink ball under lights.

Joe Root and England put all their eggs in one basket with the second Ashes Test team

England played five seamers but somewhat ominously, Root’s bowling saw the ball turn

It’s not the first time they have done this either. In Ahmedabad last winter England played four seamers against India and then saw 28 of the 30 wickets that fell going to spin.

There were long periods of play when the pitch was slow and flat and they needed a specialist spinner or the extra pace and x-factor of Mark Wood.

But they had picked the side in Adelaide they should have played last week in Brisbane on a green top and they clearly do not rate their spinner in Jack Leach, not if they are leaving him out here. Root turned a couple quite sharply and if Australia go on to a big score now Nathan Lyon will be licking his lips at what he can do on his home ground.

As I said before this Test, England seem to set out their tactics months in advance. They clearly decided well before this series they would go with Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in Adelaide but when they turned up they should have looked down at the pitch.

Then they might have realised the drop-in surface might be slower than they expected and that it might take a bit of spin, even on the first day. And that they might need Wood to go again, as long as he’s fit and firing, and react accordingly in Melbourne.

England did not actually bowl badly and I cannot fault their effort but they did bowl too short. An analysis by Channel 7 in Australia said only five per cent of the balls bowled by seamers on day one would have hit the stumps. The England bowlers were too worried about going for runs and did not bowl full enough.

James Anderson returned to the side with the hope of doing damage under the lights

Stuart Broad was back too and he took the early wicket of Australia batsman Marcus Harris

The one bowler with license to bowl short, in the absence of Wood, was Ben Stokes. He took on the role Neil Wagner fills for New Zealand, a lot of short-pitched bowling taking the pitch out of the equation, and he did make Marnus Labuschagne uncomfortable.

Stokes made a good job of that role and should have had Labuschagne caught by Jos Buttler on 21 but if you keep on banging the Kookaburra ball into the pitch like that it will go soft quicker. And I do worry about Stokes, with his long lay-off and niggling injuries, because what he did on day one in bowling 13 overs will have taken a lot out of him.

It was all summed up towards the close when England had the ridiculous situation of Stokes banging it in at one end and Root bowling leg-stump deliveries at the other in the twilight to try and get through 80 overs and have more time with the second new ball.

Marnus Labuschagne gave England a lesson in how to bat in Australia with an unbeaten 95

I know England lost Jofra Archer and Olly Stone before this series but Silverwood has been saying for two years now that they need pace in Australia.

And Root has said that if England do what they’ve always done in Australia they will be beaten again. But they have not done much differently so far in this series.

Labuschagne, even with all his quirkiness and messing around, provided another lesson in how you have to leave the ball in Australia.

It is a skill that is going out of the game but he leaves the ball brilliantly and, in part because of England’s woeful catching, he was in a position to cash in by the end of the day.