Ashes 2013-14: England too cautious at the MCG

England were tentative and cautious in making 226-6 on the opening day of the fourth Test but I can understand why - they are 3-0 down in the series, the Ashes have gone and they are very low on confidence.

When that happens you can withdraw into your shell, and although England fought admirably they were never able to impose themselves on Australia.

A total of only 17 fours were hit in the day and if you score slowly and still lose wickets, you do find yourselves under pressure.

While it was pleasing that England showed some fight, the answer was not for them to play defensive cricket but better cricket.

In the event, the two late wickets for Mitchell Johnson have exposed the lower order and the potential remains for them to be bundled out early in the morning.

At the heart of England's slow-going performance was an uncharacteristically conservative innings from Kevin Pietersen.

It is clear the criticism of Pietersen has affected him and although he was dropped twice, he was determined not to get out playing a loose shot.

With only one half-century in the series prior to this match his approach was understandable, but what you cannot have is Pietersen being shotless and that is effectively what happened when he went 45 minutes without scoring in the early part of his innings.

People want Pietersen to play the correct situation, to strike the right balance between attack and defence. If you have to play largely defensively then do so but that doesn't mean you can't hit boundaries - you have to express yourself.

We don't want him going into his shell, but nor do we want to see him holing out on the long-on boundary when the team are trying to save a game.

To Pietersen's credit, he saw England through to the close and will resume tomorrow only 33 runs away from his 24th Test hundred.

England would have ended the day in a much better position had Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow not fallen to the new ball.

Bairstow may have played a bad shot when he was bowled for 10, but he deserved his chance to play the wicketkeeper-batsman role at the expense of Matt Prior.

The Sussex gloveman has served England well for many years, but you can't keep picking people if they don't perform and Prior had scored only 107 runs in six innings this series.

You need people to know that if they don't perform they will be left out and I don't think enough of the England players do.

The Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the great sporting occasions and Thursday was no exception.

It is a remarkable venue. I played here in front of 84,000 in 1985, which was an intimidating experience and not a very nice one because we were soundly beaten.

Today saw a new world record Test crowd of 91,092 and the reason they are turning out in those numbers is not because it is a close series, as it was between Australia and West Indies in 1961 when the previous record was set, but because cricket is back on the map here in Australia.

The wheel of fortune is continually changing and for those of us who love cricket that is a wonderful thing.

Jonathan Agnew was talking to BBC Sport's Jamie Lillywhite

Listen to Jonathan Agnew and Geoff Boycott's review of the day on the TMS podcast page

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