Memories of 2001 a huge spur

IT STARTED with a win at Edgbaston, just like this time.

Then the 2001 Ashes was all over in just 11 days.

One of the most comprehensive of Australian victories in England was also the last time the tourists conquered the home team there.

Under the leadership of Steve Waugh, the Aussies were enjoying a run better than golden. A world-record 16-Test winning streak was only broken by an infamous defeat in India in February and March of 2001.

It only steeled Waugh’s men, who travelled to England a couple of months later to inflict a 4-1 Ashes defeat.

An epic Adam Gilchrist century in Birmingham, in his first Ashes innings, set the tone for a series marked as much by how bad England was as it was by Australia’s brilliance.

Waugh set the standard before the tour, when he said: “If we can get on top of them early, we can open some old scars.” It’s a mantra current skipper Tim Paine and coach Justin Langer have held on to.

The pressure is already showing as the two teams head to Lord’s this week, just like in 2001, when Australia won again. The axing of Moeen Ali, Nathan Lyon’s batting bunny, was the home team blinking first. But beyond that mental hold a first- up victory can afford, Mark Waugh, the leading run-scorer in that 2001 series, said back then Australia was just much better.

“We just had better quality of players,” Waugh said. “You are not going to lose too many series when you have two great bowlers. We had Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, and because of them we were in every game. In the first three Tests especially, we just knocked them over cheaply.

“There is no great secret to winning a series. It’s having some injury luck with your key players, self-belief, working hard, all those basic things.”

The star-studded 2001 lineup went beyond the Waugh brothers, McGrath and Warne.

Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater, and eventually Langer, opened the batting.

Ricky Ponting came in at three, Damien Martyn five, with Gilchrist the keeper and an extra batting weapon.

Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee rounded out the attack.