'Bizarre': Joe Root's actions questioned post Test loss

They say you learn more in defeat than victory, but Joe Root's seems to have adopted the old fingers-in-the-ears trick in refusing to entertain suggestions he got things terribly wrong in the first Test.

How quickly he admits his mistakes and takes back control at the selection table holds the key to England's hopes of repairing the damage and recovering ahead of the second Test in Adelaide.

The England captain was in denial after Australia swept past the visitors by nine wickets just after lunch on day four at the Gabba, desperately attempting to justify batting first while leaving seam specialists Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad out of the starting XI.

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Whatever way he attempted to spin it, no-one was buying.

Surely this was not the team Root wanted, no matter what he insists.

This horses for courses stuff in this day of age of workload balances is okay in theory, but regularly fails in practice.

While you must take local conditions into account, in Test cricket you pick your best team for every game.

Can you imagine telling Dennis Lillee to take a breather or asking Jeff Thomson to ease up because you want to use them later in the series?

You'd end up with a bat stuck somewhere between your leg and off stump.

Anderson and Broad looked like two schoolboys serving detention as they sat on the Gabba boundary clash in high vis-vests, running towels and water bottles out to team-mates.

You could almost read their minds – "You didn't want US to bowl on THIS pitch??"

England slammed for 'bizarre' selection

As Sir Ian Botham, dripping with sarcasm, said about their omissions: "I'd use the word 'bizarre'. Maybe they're too good to bowl on that wicket?

"Your best bowlers are your best bowlers. Just look at their figures.

"There are a lot of questions to be asked."

Root offered this up when asked about leaving his two best bowlers out: "It's easy to look back in hindsight but we wanted variation in our attack, we wanted to be able to change the pace of the game and move through different gears throughout the innings."

The Poms did move through the gears – the only problem was they were stuck in reverse most of the way.

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