A Tale of Two Warm-ups

Ashes 2013

 

A Tale of Two Warm-Ups

 

July 3^rd

 

 

If people were unhappy about England’s warm-up v Essex on the first evening, the situation going into the final day is infinitely worse. While Australia rack up runs, wickets and victories with an efficiency that should alarm England fans (forget the opposition, they can only play what they have in front), England’s preparations are looking definitely amateurish in comparison. Essex ended the third day without their opening new ball pairing of David Masters (Achilles tendon) and Tymal Mills (hamstring), followed by part-time spinner Tom Westley dislocating a finger. Essex, who had refused England’s request to play both Reece Topley and Ben Foakes – two likely Test candidates of the near future – in the starting XI were hardly likely to remember this game with any affection when the wave of injuries forced them into back-tracking and bringing-in Topley after all to reinforce their threadbare attack. Given that Chelmsford was full and that the patrons had paid to see competitive, First Class cricket, it was not so surprising that there was considerable dissatisfaction with the outcome. And, of course, the match was been shown live by Sky Sports, ensuring that a much wider public could follow everything in glorious detail.

Credit where credit is due. Once it became obvious that Essex were unable to sustain the match as a contest the ECB acted quickly to obtain permission from Warwickshire to play Boyd Rankin and from Essex to bring in Reece Topley, although even Reece’s dad, Don, said that he felt sorry for Tom Craddock losing his deserved 5-for as the match lost its First Class status. Topley and Rankin will give the batsmen better practice than the surviving Essex bowlers, but anyone who thinks that they will be bowling with the same intensity as in a normal county match is a born optimist.

Contrast this to the Australian side. An albeit rather weak Worcestershire attack (although reportedly only Alan Richardson was missing from their previous County Championship attack) was put mercilessly to the sword by a team that suddenly looks more united, more focussed and more dangerous than it did two weeks ago. If England underestimate this Australian side they may come a nasty cropper. Right now there is more than a suspicion that England are not taking the challenge that they pose sufficiently seriously.

[Later] In the end, England wrapped up a huge win with considerable ease. 72 runs were added for the loss of Jonny Bairstow – another who will be less than satisfied with his match haul of 23 and 28, bowled by Sajid Mahmood in the first innings and by Boyd Rankin in the second. Once Rutherford and Mickleburgh, who put on 91 for the first wicket, had been separated, the rest of the batting succumbed rapidly. Graeme Swann, who has been short of bowling, got a long bowl and a 5-for to dispel any fears about his fitness and readiness for the Test and Graham Onions, who had a horrific winter, continued his rehabilitation with four cheap wickets. To some peoples’ bewilderment, David Masters, who had been substituted by Reece Topley because of his injury, did bat, but Topley did not, while Greg Smith batted in place of Tom Westley. To add to the confusion, Tymal Mills did not come out to bat at the fall of the ninth wicket, so the innings ended with nine down. Such was the situation that one would not have been surprised if Kevin Pietersen had been sent sprinting to the dressing room at the fall of the eighth wicket to come out and bat against his own side. At least the bowlers, two of them likely reserves, two of them certain starters, had a good workout, so the last day ended up serving more of a purpose than yesterday’s play had.

A lot of interest was focussed to the west where Australia’s brutal dismantling of Worcestershire’s attack lasted two balls short of sixteen overs more in the morning before their bowlers entered the spotlight. At 180-2 after Tea, with Nick Compton approaching a century, the Australian attack – probably none of them will be in the starting XI for the 1^st Test – seemed to be getting badly bruised. Jackson Bird’s dismissal of Nick Compton for 79 sparked a collapse and 180-2 disintegrated into 187-6. Just as Nick Compton was heaping pressure on the selectors to go with him to open in the 1^st Test, he was out. A century would surely have been enough to see him make his point unarguable. Right now though, the selectors have an interesting conundrum: Joe Root scored fewer in his two innings (67) against Essex that Nick Compton has in a single knock against Australia, to add to his excellent return, including a first innings fifty, when Somerset played Australia. If Root opens, the selectors have to go with Jonny Bairstow at six. Not everyone is convinced that plugging one perceived weakness at the top of the order will not create two new ones. The fact that Bairstow was bowled in both innings for a score in the twenties will do little to convince people that he will be an adequate replacement for Joe Root in the Tests, especially having hardly played recently.

Similarly, it is a truism of cricket that if a player is doing well in his current position, you do not move him in the order. Will Root opening and Bairstow at 6 sum more runs than Compton opening and Root at 6? I believe that I am not alone in doubting it.

All that though is by the by: Australia look seriously useful and the long odds on them to win the 1^st Test look like a rare error by the bookies.