The build-up to any Ashes series in Australia provides great entertainment all of its own. This time, as the first test in Perth draws nearer, the contributions from former players in both camps have been unsurprising and surely unnecessary, and also a trifle shrill and irritating. These criticisms can hardly help with preparations for the toughest series of all. Why do old players feel it beholden upon themselves to do this?
These ‘has beens’, as Ben Stokes has pointedly called them, showing his understandable annoyance, have effectively been saying ‘things ain’t what they used to be.’ They seldom are and these oldies should move with the times. Ian Botham and Graham Gooch have both said England is not preparing enough, with the team only having only one three-day in-house practice game. Michael Vaughan strongly backed their views, while former Aussie opening batsman, the ever belligerent David Warner, has promised us a thumping 4-0 Australian victory.
Rather curiously, two former Australian players have been at least mildly sympathetic to the Poms. Ricky Ponting has described Stokes’s side as the best England team to visit Australia this century. Then, Matthew Hayden has promised to walk naked round the Melbourne Cricket Ground if Joe Root does not score the test hundred which has so far eluded him in Australia. I would love to be back in the commentary box if and when Root reaches the nineties!
At this point, England supporters must not lose faith with coach Brendon McCullum and captain Stokes. Since they came together in 2022 they have not only worked miracles, but they have completely transformed the way in which England play their cricket. The very word, Bazball, drives Australians mad, although the rate at which they now score their runs and their current style of play suggests they have been unwillingly converted.
England undoubtedly have a real chance of winning a series in Australia for the first time since 2010/11. They have not won a single test match there since, a fact that further underlines the magnitude of their present task.
There are perhaps too many English imponderables for comfort. The most important of these is the need to keep the fast bowlers fit. Already, this problem has been underlined when on the first day of that in-house warm up game in Perth against the Lions, Mark Wood left the field with a tight hamstring after bowling eight overs. The latest reports suggest he will be able to open the bowling with Jofra Archer at Perth’s Optus Stadium in the first test. They are England’s two fastest bowlers and this is the quickest surface they will come across. Fingers crossed that they first start the match and then last the course.
In the practice game against the Lions, Stokes took six wickets in the first innings and then made 77, leaving no one in any doubt as to his intentions. He bowled with good rhythm and was happily recognisable as the bowler who took 5/72 against India at Old Trafford last summer before going on to make 144. Stokes’s fitness is the most important factor of all. Will he last for all five tests which come thick and fast after each other?
The tour selectors are unlikely to choose a spinner for Perth. Shoiab Bashir, the off spinner, has not played a first class match since July. He is the wild card typical of McCullum and Stokes and will face quite a challenge when he bowls at batsmen who have long been facing the off spinning wiles of Nathan Lyon – who will bowl and take wickets in Perth. England will then have an unbalanced attack, which is always a danger. Root will have to bowl his off breaks and will do a job, but he is not a front line spin bowler.
It may seem strange to say so, but the two most important England batsmen are the openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett. If they can give the innings a typically robust start it will make life much easier for the powerful middle order, Root and Harry Brook and then Jamie Smith and Stokes. Ollie Pope will start at number three and has the chance to prove that he can produce when the pressure is acute. It is a good sign that he batted beautifully when making a hundred in the practice match. We will now see how he reacts to formidable Australian pressure especially if they have taken an early wicket.
England have these problems, but Australia also have theirs, which have grown worse with late news that Josh Hazelwood’s recently sustained hamstring injury will keep him out of certainly the first test. Australia will now be without both Hazelwood and Pat Cummins for the start of the series and there is no guarantee they will be fit for Brisbane either. This news will warm the hearts of England’s batsmen.
The fates look as though they have played into England’s hands
The top of their batting order is vulnerable too: Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne are now living on borrowed time and Australia will miss Warner’s pugnacity at the top of the order. And even Steve Smith may not be quite the player he was. For all that, Smith’s batting average is better when he captains Australia than when he is simply a player. He also has a great record against England as both captain and batsman.
Although Smith is an experienced leader, it can only be unsettling for Australia that Cummins, will not be fit for Perth, for the side has bonded around him for a while. Now that Hazelwood is also unfit it leaves the faithful Mitchell Starc as the only one of the trio of fast bowlers who have been so responsible for Australia’s success in recent times. Starc is now in his mid-thirties and approaching fast bowling old age when injuries take a long time to mend.
Both sides therefore have their problems, but Australia will, as always, be backed by vibrantly aggressive support and of course a significant home advantage. For all that, I am going to side with combined skills of McCullum and Stokes and back them to bring home the Ashes especially now that the fates look as though they have played into England’s hands for the start of the series.
Of course, the danger still remains that England’s medical staff will be faced with too many unplayable lies. As always with the Ashes, the rivalry will be intense, there will be much to enjoy as well as a fair amount of frustration. Let us hope tempers do not become too frayed, and first that England leave Perth one match to the good.
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