Groundhog Day (again)

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Same old story

 

December 13^th 2013

 

 

When Alistair Cook lost the toss for the fourth consecutive time you knew what was coming. In seven Ashes Tests this year, the side that won the toss has gone on to dominate and, all but twice (in rain affected games), to win. After the first day it would be a brave man who would vote against eight out of eight.

We are seeing the exact reverse of the summer. Last summer England would lose early wickets, fight back and Australia would be unable to finish off the job because of lack of depth in the bowling. Now it is that Australia win the toss and bat, losing early wickets before a middle order recovery knocks the stuffing out of England because England lack the depth to finish the job with the ball.

As suggested yesterday, England went for the least bad of the options making a straight swap of Bresnan for Monty. Before the tour a lot of fans were worried about the selectors painting themselves into a corner by selecting three tall, fast bowlers, giving themselves few real options. While there were good reasons for worrying about Chris Tremlett, who looked a shadow of his former self last summer, Finn and, above all, Rankin, looked like safe bets to enjoy the extra bounce. The reality though has been that since his 5 wicket burst early in the tour, Finn has gone backwards and Rankin has never threatened to challenge for a place.

Jon Agnew came up with the lovely phrase that, rather than fighting fire with fire, picking Finn would have been like fighting fire with petrol. So, instead, England supported Broad and Anderson with the returning Bresnan, who was always likely to be feeling his way back and the apprentice, Stokes, who is not a wicket-taking bowler (yet) at this level.

I felt that England needed to knock over Australia for 220 to stay in the match. At 143-5, it looked on. Australia could even have rolled over for under 200. At 326-6 at the Close, with Smith past his century and Mitch Johnson closing in on another 50, the cause looks lost and, with it, the Ashes. It is frustrating, because England are a lot better than this and the gap between the teams is nowhere near as large as it has appeared to be.