Australia confront the Harris gap

Ryan Harris is at Cardiff. He will also be at Lord's and Edgbaston. During that time he will be a source of much advice and wisdom, and his solid character will remain valued. Whatever counsel Harris can offer, though, it is nothing next to what he would have provided for Australia as a senior fast bowler and go-to man for Michael Clarke.

On the opening day of the Investec Ashes series, Harris sat in the Australians' viewing area, only around 80 metres from the action. Yet as the tourists wrestled with their limitations against Joe Root, he might as well have been on the moon. The simple truth of this day was that it was one on which Harris would have been invaluable, and every member of Clarke's bowling quintet was diminished by his absence.

Of course Harris was always unlikely to play this match even if he had not cracked his right tibia while trying to bowl on a hopelessly compromised knee in Canterbury. That being the case, it must have been galling for the coach Darren Lehmann and his assistant Craig McDermott to see inconsistency. They expected more of Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood, even accounting for an unhelpful pitch.

The trouble started early with one of the faults Starc has developed over his time on the international stage. Treacherously as he can bowl with a new ball to a right-hander, Starc is half the bowler when bowling those same balls to a left-hander. This is largely because his typical delivery point from close to the stumps allows the likes of Alastair Cook, Gary Ballance and others to see the ball swerving out of the hand. This was evident as the brand new ball was often allowed to veer by harmlessly.

Before the match, McDermott had said he was working with all the bowlers on using the crease to change their angle of release. He had also said that Peter Siddle, the man who missed out on selection, was more adept at it than others. Harris, too, was an expert at subtler variations, and Starc must find a way to alter his position if he is to trouble England's top three.

When Nathan Lyon delivered a gorgeous brief spell in which he bewitched Cook, Starc finally had a right-hander. Ian Bell was soon lbw, and Root's first two balls suggested anything but permanence. The first struck Root in front of middle and off on the back pad, survival only possible due to a thin inside edge first. Next, a wider delivery was edged on the half volley, wrong-footing Brad Haddin and causing him to make an awkward, failed attempt. It will go down in most accounts as the turning point of the day.

But such a reading would be to miss the fact that in subsequent overs Australia still had the chance to pressure England further. Were Harris still available to him, it is easy to imagine Clarke tightening things enough so to make it unbearable for the hosts. Even when it is acknowledged that England have committed to an approach less Roundhead than Cavalier, another strong follow-up spell would likely have created further chances.

Instead, Starc, Johnson and Hazlewood served up a succession of short deliveries that Root was able to tuck into without any of the risk associated with fuller balls - something he also scored from, if nowhere near as much. In the run to lunch, Root accelerated to 33 from 24 balls, and took the initiative well and truly away from an Australian side sitting rather pretty at 43 for 3. Even if a brief shower before lunch did not help, it was the sort of passage in which Harris had often prospered.

Clarke perhaps erred by not trying Watson before lunch, given his strong record against Root, but it was telling that the prime pace trio were unable to work around one another in a relay of aggressive and supporting spells. Ricky Ponting had noted that in Starc, Hazlewood and Johnson, Clarke has three fast bowlers all best-suited to the new ball. While Harris was just as adept, he could also play the foil to a more thrusting attack from the other end.

As it was, Root and Ballance were able to capitalise on a liberal supply of boundary balls, notching 25 between them. Starc and Johnson were both taken for runs at around 4.50 an over, a rate that Starc only partly mitigated with his three wickets. Save for some swing in his first spell and a few short balls that had Ballance hopping, Johnson was far less effective on a sluggish pitch. The pitch may have been prepared with a fifth day finish in mind, but there will be no Englishman wishing it were faster.

It should never be forgotten how great a role Harris played in allowing Johnson the opportunity to terrorise England last time. Given nothing by the former, they were left with nowhere to go by the latter. Johnson inflicted his most telling psychological blows on England's tail, often after Harris and Siddle accounted for most members of England's top six. This time around, Johnson found himself bowling at set batsmen. Most telling of all was the fact that Root's stand with Ballance was more sizeable than any England partnership of the previous Ashes series. Lyon and Watson, hard as they tried, are less headliners than support acts.

Among the most memorable deliveries Harris ever conjured was an utter peach to flick the outside of Root's off stump in Durham two years ago. While it is open to question whether the Root of 2015 would have missed it, it is undeniable that of the Australians at Cardiff, only Harris could have bowled it. After a day that quantified the size of the task ahead of them to win the Ashes abroad for the first time since 2001, Clarke's team now know exactly how much they will miss him.