Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood, who returned figures of three for 70 on his Ashes debut to outshine the wicketless Mitchell Johnson, tipped his Baggy Green in Joe Root’s direction for his brilliant century.
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He said: “The way he batted was pretty special. We’ll have to come back with a plan, or a couple of plans hopefully, to be able to nullify him over the rest of the series.
“He really waited for the bad ball throughout the whole innings. He’s a most improved player from last time we saw him and played against him. We’ll have to work a way to get him out.”
Hazlewood admitted the Ashes-holders had let England off the hook and felt they have to get over the Brad Haddin spill quickly.
“The conditions suited us in that first hour and we probably made the most of it there, but we didn’t stick to our guns I guess for the next couple of sessions. We built pressure and then leaked the runs and the pressure went away. But I think we got better throughout the day.
He added: “I don’t think we’re used to dropping catches at the moment, and hopefully we don’t.
“But in that situation I think we’ve got to deal with it better and keep bowling those balls in the right areas and creating those opportunities.
“Those ones are always tough. More than often it actually is a catch, I think you can see by the way it flies off the bat. They’re really tough those full ones, and Hadds usually takes more than he drops, so hopefully he can improve and catch the next one.”
The 24-year-old, the baby among Michael Clarke’s ‘Dad’s Army’, pleaded ignorance when asked about fellow paceman Mitchell Starc’s finger-to-the-lips send-off of Ben Stokes – the first sight of sledging in the series.
“I’m not too sure what that was all about. He (Starc) had the last laugh this time, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Starc left the field in the closing stages of the day with a sore ankle. He will be treated overnight but is not considered a serious injury concern.
