All the signs of a classic dogfight

AUSTRALIA may well win the Ashes this summer, but it won’t simply be a matter of huffing and puffing and blowing England’s house down.

Fasten your seat belts folks. If first indications count for anything, this could be a wonderful Ashes series, one of the rare ones in Australia that sways in different directions.

It’s been more than 30 years since there’s been a seesawing dogfight of an Ashes series on our shores.

Someone normally cracks and gets crunched. Mostly, it’s England. Twice in three decades it’s been Australia.

The Ashes are overdue for a series in Australia in which two evenly matched teams kick and scrap and scratch and claw and it goes right down to the wire. Maybe this is it.

Shane Warne said last week England no longer feared Australia, and the comment gained more credence when Mark Stoneman and James Vince were constructing a century stand and Dawid Malan was fighting hard in lengthening shadows.

It was a day of significant progress for England, but Australia still finished almost dead level on the scoreboard.

There was no sign this England team – particularly their lesser known players – were nerve- racked in the way they were four years ago when Mitchell Johnson had Kevin Pietersen thinking, “I could be killed at the Gabbatoir’’ as he waited to bat in the dressing room.

Nor do they seemed to be fazed by headlines suggesting their key players could be shunted into retirement.

This is not one of the great England teams, but there is a quiet confidence about them.

It’s just a matter of whether they have the class to resist the Australian attack when they’re at their best, which they were not quite on a pitch devoid of treachery yesterday.

Instead of being the expected mortar gun assault, the first day of the series was like one of those old- fashioned Ashes Tests that creep along like a gently rising tide.

It was hard work. So it should be. It’s an Ashes Test on a flat deck.

With Australia playing just four bowlers, there is an intriguing attritional element. Every over England bat, they take a little bit of petrol out of an Australian attack.

England, by contrast, have five bowlers, including four fast men. If England could kick on to a 400- plus total, it could have major benefits in the second innings and beyond.

The pitch should be faster today and with the second new ball just an over old, Australia have the chance to seize the early initiative.