ASHES PLAN OF ATTACK
NATHAN Lyon is set to head up an army of baggy green stars going behind enemy lines this winter, as Australia prepares to crack its Ashes curse in England once and for all.
Australia might have conquered the tourists convincingly at home, but it has not tasted Ashes glory in the old dart since 2001 — a drought that stretches even longer than their failings in India.
In that period, batsmen have struggled to play the moving ball to the extreme of the 60 all out at Trent Bridge in 2015 and bowlers have often missed their lengths.
However, in a big power play, a six-man core of the Test side is set to infiltrate English county cricket before the mission to retain the urn in 2019.
Allrounder Mitchell Marsh has knocked back Indian Premier League riches to play for London-based county side Surrey, while brother Shaun, will spend a season in Cardiff for Glamorgan.
Top order players of the future Cameron Bancroft, Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw are all preparing to finetune their games on seaming decks, while spin king Lyon is expected to sign a deal and perfect is his game in English conditions as he has done in the subcontinent.
Visa restrictions have made county contracts harder to come by for Australian players in recent years, but this year’s intake of Test stars is a flash- back to years gone by when Allan Border and the Waugh brothers honed their Ashes games season after season for teams across the UK.
Other Australian stars are also in the market for county contracts.
Allrounder Marsh did not realise he would be back in the Australian set-up so soon when he signed with Surrey, but he is refusing to bend on his commitment to his 2019 Ashes preparation, despite the million-dollar riches offered by the IPL auction this month.
“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to play 14 red-ball games over there,” he said.
“I want to try to improve, and looking forward we have a lot of cricket coming up in England over the next few years and I want to give myself the best opportunity.
“I spoke to ‘Boof’ [coach Darren Lehmann] and Justin Langer about it and obviously my old man [Geoff], and they all said it was a good idea.”
Australia’s drought in the UK is in stark contrast with the golden run from Border’s 1989 side to Steve Waugh’s 2001 team who were never headed in England.
It is no coincidence Border, Waugh and many other Australians had regular stints in English county cricket.
Two weeks ago, England coach Trevor Bayliss made a point of saying how he wished he could get his players into the Sheffield Shield system in Australia.