Post-world Cup comedown gives advantage to Australia
England face tough ask to rise to opening Test Woakes called up but no place for Archer
It is the first series of the World Test championship, the first Test series to allow concussion substitutes and the first Test series for David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft after their bans for ball tampering.
It is also the first Ashes series to start in August, having the latest start of any Ashes series in any English summer. And yet for the hosts, who hope to regain the Ashes, it comes too soon after their World Cup victory only 2½ weeks ago.
Apart from the purposeful Australians, Edgbaston, on the eve of this Ashes series, was more flat than fizzing. Not the pitch, of course: that is not going to be flat because this venue was specifically chosen for the opening Test so that James Anderson, though he has turned 37 this week, and Stuart Broad could strike the first blows, to the strains of England’s most patriotic crowd. It looked brown, but grassy, and not very evenly so.
It was the ambience which was flat, by comparison with the start of previous Ashes series – those nervous mornings at the Gabba, pulsing with subtropical humidity and the tourists’ fear of the unknown, or at an English venue, or Cardiff in 2009, when the Ashes have been always the summer’s peak. The tale being told by Edgbaston’s scoreboard was of the last
T20 between Birmingham Bears and Derbyshire.
Only three weeks ago England played their best game of the World Cup here, against Australia, a virtually perfect game. The aggression of England’s opening batsmen and opening bowlers, not to mention that of the spectators in the Eric Hollies stand, swamped Australia, who lost a World Cup semi-final for the first time, by the huge margins of eight wickets and almost 18 overs.
For the seven England players in their World Cup squad, this Ashes series is like a whole hog roast straight after a haunch of venison with only cheese in between: strong cheese, too, as England were losing to Ireland for most of their inaugural Test at Lord’s. Or Wagner followed, after the briefest of intervals, by Beethoven – his ninth as well. All too much and too rich, however willing the flesh and spirit.
Australia, after losing their semifinal, had more of a break than England, and less need of down time and more redball preparation. They now radiate more hunger and motivation, in addition to the individual determinations of Warner, Smith and Bancroft to rehabilitate themselves as people and players in the eyes of the cricket world. Warner, 32, has yet to make his first Test century
in England. On England’s behalf, Joe Root said all the right words about being prepared, but his low tone – almost flatness – hinted at the difficulty of raising himself and his World Cup winners back to concert-pitch. And England’s supporters have been lulled into false security: England may have won all four of their past home Ashes series, starting in 2005, but three have been by the smallest margin. Australia, when they win at home, win in a landslide like 5-0; England, even at their very best, squeak over the line at home. Objectivity will bracket the two countries together in pace bowling,
which is the strength of both sides; and rate Australia superior in spin bowling, especially as Nathan Lyon will have five England lefthanders to target; and rate Australia stronger in top-order batting, too, thanks to their preparation.
Tim Paine and cohorts have been practising against red balls on the Australia A tour of England; half of their team have played championship cricket, three of them this season, whereas Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes played their last red-ball game in St Lucia back in February.
Another Australian advantage is that their batsmen will be able to get back in the saddle if they start this series badly: they have a firstclass game against Worcestershire after this opening Test, and another against Derbyshire after the third at Headingley. Rory Burns, after making six and six against Ireland, has no chance of finding form if this series does not go well.
England have already omitted their most prolific match-winner of the last year. Sam Curran, with his batting, turned the tide in the Edgbaston Test last summer against India, and in three other Tests since then, yet he was running alone on the outfield yesterday afternoon. Given overcast conditions, Curran’s left-arm swing will also be missed.
It makes sense for
Chris Woakes, who kisses the deck, to start here ahead of Jofra Archer, who bangs it in, but not for Root to promote himself to No 3 and thereby protect Joe Denly at four. If Root does want to bat at three – and thereby curb the expansive strokes
which have cost him his wicket so often in recent years, as he attempts to impose himself on the bowlers rather play the ball on its merits – then Jason Roy should bat at four, and Denly open. Curran at four might score as many runs as Denly in a whole series: and why not a day-watchman, if a nightwatchman can work as well as Jack Leach at Lord’s?
Losing the first Test is not the way to win an Ashes series – the last time either country came back from losing the opener to win the series was in 2005, which helped to make it the epic it was – so England cannot afford to let Australia win here, for the first time since 2001. Concussion substitutes were not used during the Bodyline series of 1932-33, otherwise Harold Larwood would have reshaped Australia’s batting line-up.
In this fixture the match referee Ranjan Madugalle may have a nice decision to make when judging whether a replacement is likefor-like: he must come from his side’s squad. By a great irony, the pretext offered by England’s then administrators for stuffing three Ashes series into 26 months in the middle of this decade – jeopardising the popularity of the genre – was to stop World Cups following directly after Ashes series in Australia. Lo and behold, we have instead an Ashes series following the World Cup, and the signs are it will disadvantage England more than Australia.