London: No electric pace. No alarming bounce. No movement off the seam. No purchase for any turn. And once the lacquer wears off, no swing either. The Lord's pitch laid out for the second Ashes Test is a pile of corporatised soil, compacted by a heavy roller designed to squeeze the last bit of living life from it but last every bit of the five days, to ensure the turnstiles keep turning and the bean counters keep counting.


Mitch Marsh of Australia celebrates taking the wicket of England's Ben Stokes during Day Three of the second Ashes Test between at Lord's Cricket Ground on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images 

It is a Alastair Cook type of wicket where the batsmen needs to have a lot of patience, be risk averse, avoid sparring at deliveries harmlessly sliding down the slope and wait for the bowlers to bowl at the stumps to flick away or wide enough to cut. Be patient and grind the bowlers in to dust. It's a wicket that was a throw back to an earlier time when Test cricket moved like molasses rather than the New Zealand inspired crash-bang-wallop style of a high energy rave.