Joe Root and Harry Brook FAIL in pre-Ashes warm-up in worrying signs for England – as former Australia coach Darren Lehmann becomes latest Aussie to aim dig at Ben Stokes’ side

The world’s top-two Test batsmen flunked their chances to develop pre-Ashes form on a day of heavy-run scoring at Lilac Hill.

In what is likely to be their only chance for an innings before facing up to Australia’s attack in next week’s first Test here, Yorkshire pair Joe Root and Harry Brook – numbers one and two in the ICC batting rankings – fell for single-figure scores.

Root arrived here amid talk of an Ashes hundred being the only thing missing from his stellar career CV, but followed an underwhelming limited-overs series in New Zealand a fortnight ago – in which he mustered just 29 runs in three innings – with a failure against England Lions.

While the rest of the top six in Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Ben Stokes cashed in on the favourable batting conditions on day two of three – Pope bowled, missing a sweep off Shoaib Bashir immediately after getting to 100 – Root became the final victim in a spell of three for three in four overs when he tamely pulled a Matt Potts delivery to midwicket.

Root was undoubtedly undercooked in terms of crease occupation upon arrival here earlier this week and so a contribution of one from a dozen deliveries to an England innings that saw the Lions’ 375 surpassed in the evening session was anything but ideal for a player who clearly has unfinished business here, following three previous Test tours of Australia.

In the context of such limited build-up to the five Test series, Brook’s dismissal was worse.

Having survived a curious attempt to scoop off former county team-mate Matthew Fisher – the ball dropping short of a return chance for the Surrey bowler – he played a shot that did little to quell Australian ribbing about the knockabout nature of England’s warm-up fixture.

With just two to his name, England vice-captain Brook ran down the pitch in Nathan Gilchrist’s first over and under-edged into off-stump.

There is no doubting Brook’s quality as an international player, given his average of 57.55 and career record of 10 Test hundreds.

But dismissals like the one that reduced England to 198 for four draw attention to his poor record here. Although he is yet to play Test or one-day international cricket, he averages just 9.85 in nine Twenty20 internationals on Australian soil and managed just 6.28 in seven innings for Hobart Hurricanes prior to becoming an international.

England’s opening pair of Crawley and Duckett made the most of the morning session when the pitch was at its quickest, with the latter threading a succession of boundaries through the cordon, including one that found its way between first and second slip at catchable height off Potts.

They had put on 140 by lunch and had taken their stand to 182 when Potts – luckless in his new-ball burst of 5-0-40-0 – claimed the first of three wickets, Duckett caught behind following a switch of ends.

‘I always enjoy batting with Ducky, he looked in great touch, and hopefully we will do it a bit over the next couple of months,’ Crawley said.

Having played both grade cricket in Western Australia and represented Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League, Crawley understands the contrasting conditions between the Midland Guildford club ground and next week’s Test venue better than most.

‘We are just trying to get some rhythm and spend time in the middle,’ he continued.

‘I’ve played at the Optus and it’s got a bit of pace and bounce, but you can never judge, we are a week away and we will see.’

Crawley departed moments later when Fisher pinged the flap of his front pad.

But after the Lions were gifted two further wickets, Pope nailed down the No 3 spot for the start of the Ashes, cashing in as a surface baked by the sun slowed up and the ball softened.

With England captain Stokes practising what he preached with his ‘balls to the wall’ pledge at the other end, punishing anything too short or too full, taking particular toll on the tour’s senior spinner Shoaib Bashir by launching a couple of monstrous straight sixes, England began scoring at their customary clip again.

Mark Wood appeared in good spirits, smiling as he watched on from the boundary ahead of a scan that will determine whether he has strained his hamstring, ruling him out of bowling on the third day and therefore in next week’s first Test.

The senior side were in credit by the time that Stokes sliced to point off Jacks – the first of a procession of late wickets that included three for 14 from the slow left-arm of Jacob Bethell.

Meanwhile, England’s Ashes preparations continued in among the phoney-war, with Darren Lehmann becoming the latest Australian to aim a dig at Stokes’ side on Wednesday.

After they announced their team for the warm-up match against the Lions, former Australia coach Lehmann accused them of being predictable.

‘No spinner (tick), bowl first (tick) – Never bat first, this is how they will set up. Over rates, who cares,’ he posted on X.