Grandees must put hosts’ young side in the mood
Anderson and Broad may never face Australia again but can have big influence on this series
This is probably the last series in which we will see our greatest-ever combination of seam bowlers playing together. Can the experience of Stuart Broad and James Anderson drive this team home?
The side must be carrying some form of hangover from the World Cup win. Can that experienced pair ensure that a young team who have just achieved a massive high concentrate on the basics that will win an Ashes series?
England play an expansive, aggressive way but can Anderson and Broad make sure the team play intelligently as well? I hope these two great bowlers draw on their years of experience and have a word with the batsmen and plead with them to see off a bowler if he is having a good spell.
The Australians will only pick three seamers. Broad and Anderson can tell their own batsmen how hard it is to be part of a three-man attack if the batting side dig in and make life hard. When you have to bowl three or four spells it is a long, hard day out in the middle. I am sure Broad and Anderson will be encouraging positive strokeplay but also saying: “Come on, let’s make it hard for them”. Force their bowlers to come back for three or four spells in a day or make Nathan Lyon hold an end on day one. The Ashes is the greatest cricketing showpiece and one that tests every facet of your game and personality, and these next five matches could also be emotional, too, because Broad and Anderson could be retiring.
I cannot see them bowling against Australia again even if they decide to carry on for another summer. In English conditions they still have it. Anderson has proved that over the past two years. Broad will be fired up by an Ashes and at some point will produce a spell that makes a difference. But it is always hard to raise your game when deep down you know you are coming towards the end. What Alastair Cook achieved at the Oval by scoring a hundred in his last Test was
remarkable. But it is rare. I hope there is a fairy-tale finish for Broad and Anderson if they go this summer, but it is rare for that to happen. Broad, Anderson and Chris Woakes will know that one of them will miss out eventually to accommodate Jofra Archer. It is a massive boost for Joe Root to have three senior bowlers looking over their shoulder because Archer and Sam Curran are waiting in the wings and Mark Wood could come back later in the series.
Competition for places is what you need when you reach the latter stages of your career. If you know your place is safe then you can be a little lethargic and take it for granted. Jimmy has plenty of credit in the bank but Stuart will know he has to bowl well at Edgbaston this week to guarantee his place for the Lord’s Test. Who is to say this will not be his last chance to bowl in a Lord’s Test? It is a great carrot for him to bowl brilliantly this week. At the highest level you have to be desperate to succeed and that motivation should help.
Matches in this series will be close and won by a batsman making a hundred in tough circumstances. The bowling will be collective because both attacks have skill and firepower. It is the batsmen that will be under the
Matches will be close and won by a batsman making a hundred in tough circumstances
most pressure and it will be about who can score a scrappy fifty or take the game away when the ball is older with a quick-fire 78 like Curran did last summer and Jos Buttler did on a few occasions in the winter. I have no problem with Root going to No 3. I have never been bothered about batting orders, I am more concerned about a player’s mentality towards batting. These players have it in them to produce workmanlike Test match innings. Jonny Bairstow has done it before. Buttler scored a hundred at Trent Bridge last year that contained lots of dots. Apart from the three inexperienced players in the top four, the rest have all played Test match innings and what I do not want to hear is them excusing bad shots by saying that is “how we play”.
The way you play is dictated by the state of the game. They have done it before. Can they do it on a consistent basis in this series because it will be the team that plays smart cricket that will win the Ashes? In England you have to be smart and savvy to win.