EVERY UNDERDOG HAS ITS DAY
Fighting talk from England as tourists revel in chance to silence the Aussies
IT IS easy to forget England have won four of the last five Ashes and are the holders of the urn. Easy, also, to forget the sensational summer of 2015 and Stuart Broad’s eight for 15 at Trent Bridge. It is as if everyone here only remembers what happened the last time England played in Australia.
England certainly remember their recent Ashes record — Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Alastair Cook all quietly slipped it into their media conferences yesterday — and Broad has a reminder of his successes in the form of a package of all his wickets against Australia put together for him to watch here by the team analyst.
But they have preferred to take a softly- softly approach in the build-up to a series that finally gets under way at midnight tonight in contrast to the trash talking Aussies epitomised by Nathan Lyon’s ludicrous outburst.
Not to mention good old David Warner, expected to be fit after a minor neck injury,y, lobbing in a hand grenadeade of his own yesterdayy by saying Ben Stokes kes had ‘ let his s country down’.
England deserve credit for copying Andrew Strauss’s offfield approach to playing here seven years ago, when he refused all invitations to o criticise Australiaa or big up his own side. Now they must emulate him on the field and retain the biggest prize in cricket.
It is, of course, a very different kettle of fish playing in Australia, which is why Strauss’s victory seven years ago was outstanding, and England will understandably begin this series at the imposing Gabba as firm underdogs.
If they are to upset the odds they will need one of their batsmen to stand up and dominate the Australia attack as Cook did in 2010-11 with his extraordinary tally of 766 runs. So, who better than Cook himself?
The former captain is acutely aware his Ashes record other than in that golden series is distinctly average. Cook is aware, too, that what happens over the next five Tests could well define the postleadership stage of his career.
But he was in relaxed mood yesterday as he reflected on being a key figure, at 32, against Australia’s formidable attack, with inexperience all around him and his successor Joe Root in England’s batting order.
It is an order which will have Moeen Ali at No 6, one place above Jonny Bairstow, who Root thinks will be better at shepherding the tail, as Brad Haddin did so successfully here four years ago.
‘I still get nervous, of course I do,’ said a man with 147 Tests and 11,629 runs under his belt. ‘I can feel the emotions now. Coming to the ground today brings back good and bad memories and you don’t know what it will be like this time.
‘But this is what drives you on when you’re doing all the training in the dark hours at Chelmsford or in the gym when it’s dull and boring. This is when you want to go out and play really well.’
That 5-0 drubbing under Cook’s leadership four years ago would have broken a lesser man but the ECB were right to hold their nerve and keep him as captain then and the plan was for him to end his reign by seeking revenge here. Sadly, India put paid to that last wintwinter. ‘It was a big decisiodecision to give up the captcaptaincy a year ago,’ saisaid Cook. ‘But I’ve rereally enjoyed ggoing back to the rranks. As someone who’s played a few Tests, you have experience to pass on.’ The lack of ego in Cook has made hihim the perfect sensenior professional for Root.R ‘TherThere’s always that element of not wanting to step on his toes, but we have had some really good conversations and I think now the series is here I’ve got a bit more of a role to play with the guys who haven’t played Tests in Australia.’
The key to this Ashes will surely lie in whether Australia’s outstanding pace bowlers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins and the Glenn McGrath- like Josh Hazlewood stay fit and firing and have success against England’s fragile top five. But Cook, who made a slow start to this tour partly because of illness and soreness in his back, was keen to play down the hype.
‘They are good bowlers with good records, but there’s nothing we haven’t seen before,’ he said.
‘They are not bowling 150mph. They’ve not got magic balls that start way outside the stumps and swing miles. You want to challenge yourself against the best and this is a decent attack.’ Brisbane holds the key. If England can leave this Aussie fortress unscathed either due to a repeat of the runs scored here seven years ago by Cook, Strauss and Jonathan Trott or through the rain forecast for the second half of this Test, they really could be in business.
‘You don’t go into any game thinking you want a draw but it would be a really good start to this series,’ said Cook. ‘Australia’s record here is very good but records are there to be broken. One day Australia will lose at Brisbane in the Ashes. You would not want to be in the Australia side who lose at the Gabba.’ Steady on, Alastair. That almost sounds like a bit of trash-talking. ‘All their talk makes me chuckle,’ he insisted. ‘Nathan Lyon was the first person I saw today and we had a really nice 10-minute chat.
‘He asked me how my kids are and I asked after his. All the talk stops once this series starts. I miss most of it anyway, not being on social media. All I do is check up on the Luton Town score…’
England, of course, would have a much better chance of winning this Ashes if Stokes was here but it was possible yesterday, if Cook is to the fore in keeping out Starc and company, to believe they just might pull off a big upset. In their own low-key way.