ASHES SPECIAL
ROOT’S MEN IN FIGHT FOR THEIR PRIDE
ENGLAND will stick with their beaten pack to try to get something out of another lost Ashes here on Boxing Day rather than twist and try something different against Australia.
It seems certain England will make just one change for the fourth Test at the iconic MCG in front of 90,000 spectators and that is only because Craig Overton’s cracked rib keeps him out of this match and probably the last Test in Sydney.
That change is likely to be the conservative one of bringing in another medium-pacer in Tom Curran for his Test debut rather than trying something different and imaginative by throwing in 20-yearold leg-spinner Mason Crane.
Last night that final place looked to be between Curran and Mark Wood, who is not even officially in the England squad but who has stuck around after the Lions tour and could at least bring extra pace to a one-dimensional attack.
Otherwise England will show faith in those players beaten in all three Tests so far and tell them to display their character to ensure they do not suffer their third whitewash in four Ashes tours.
That will include Stuart Broad, who showed his fitness after a knee problem in the Melbourne nets yesterday and is clearly bristling to prove those such as his old captain Michael Vaughan wrong in saying he should be dropped.
Broad endured a nightmare third Test in Perth and has gone wicketless in three innings now while taking only five at 61.80 so far but England believe they should not consider his decline terminal.
He has bounced back before from lean spells with those match-winning bursts of wickets that have marked his career and his challenge now is to show he can still change a Test in one session.
Also under pressure at the MCG will be Alastair Cook, who is without a fifty in his past 10 innings and in need of a big score like never before, and Moeen Ali, such a disappointment with bat and ball throughout this series.
There was support for Broad yesterday from one of the few senior England players to do themselves justice so far, Jonny Bairstow, who made a century in Perth.
‘Naturally people will pick things apart when they are not going well,’ said Bairstow. ‘But you’ve also got to remember those two guys opening the bowling for us [Broad and Jimmy Anderson] are now the most successful seam-bowling partnership the game has ever known.
‘These guys have got some serious skills and that’s not just in England, it’s around the world. You don’t take more than 900 wickets between you without having those skills and I think to pick people apart after one or two Tests is very harsh. You do a lot better if people get behind you.’
It would appear Crane did not improve his case to be selected here as one of England’s youngest ever Test spinning debutants with some poor bowling in the MCG nets yesterday and his inclusion is seen as too big a gamble.
Only i f England drop Moeen would Crane have a realistic chance of playing in a side robbed of their balance by the absence of Ben Stokes.
That could pave the way for a debutant instead in the older of the Curran brothers, who impressed England with his temperament in white-ball cricket last summer and now since he arrived here to replace the injured Steven Finn.
Curran, 22, has certainly leapfrogged Jake Ball, who was dropped like a stone by England after the first Test in Brisbane and was outbowled by Curran in the two-day warm-up game in Perth ahead of the third Test.
Bairstow said that Curran had added a bit of pace but he will be nowhere the speeds of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who have played such a big part in Australia’s success.
At least England may not have to face Starc as he is still struggling with the bruised heel he suffered in Perth and Jackson Bird, who is significantly slower than the big three, stands by to deputise.
Bairstow said England will treat these final matches as a ‘two-Test series’ but they will have to improve dramatically if they are to stop Steve Smith joining Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in i nfl i ct i ng an Ashes whitewash.
Australia always seem to find a way of competing in Ashes series in England even after they have been lost but so far England have been unable to cope in the harsher conditions of Australia. It is up to them to show they can compete here after seven successive away Test defeats.