Post-Test Reflections: Time To Change

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

England outfought

 

December 18^th 2013

 
 

If you want a weird Ashes statistic that sums up how the series has gone, England’s average 1^st innings score in the current Ashes series is 186; their average 2^nd innings score is 281. Australia’s average 1^st innings score so far is 417. Put runs on the board and strangle England to death in the first innings; even though England will do a lot better second time around, it is still nowhere near enough. Why though England should score around one hundred runs more in the second innings is anyone’s guess.

The wise old heads said back last June that there was very little that Darren Lehman could do in the summer series, but that he would be a more serious threat in the winter. What very few people imagined is that he would be so effective. Undoubtedly England have suffered from some overconfidence and have been caught cold, but Australia have had a plan and stuck to it. They have been helped by two particular pieces of luck: while Michael Clarke’s form was not such a shock, the reincarnation of Mitch Johnson as a devastating, accurate, fast bowler though, is. Mitch Johnson has been capable of devastating spells, or games, but has never sustained it through a series the way that he has here. Last summer England’s middle order and tail covered up for the loss of top-order wickets and the Australians had no one to blast out that tail and recover control. Here, the situation has been reversed. England’s tired bowlers have been unable to remove the Australian tail quickly, while the Australian attack has blown away the England tail time and again.

This is a decent Australian side but, by no means a great one. This series win may also be a one-off. Rogers, Haddin, Harris and even Clarke are right at the end of their careers: a single injury could finish any of them. It is likely than none will still be in the side in twelve months’ time. Johnson blows hot and cold and could, like Steve Harmison in 2004, just be going through a period of grace that he will never again manage. However, it is a side that is providing England with more problems than they can cope with.

Twitterer Fred Boycott, who some suspect to be David Lloyd, broke the habit of a lifetime by coming up with a suggested team for 4th Test that did not consist of twelve Yorkshiremen, most of whom are not even on tour. His suggested XI makes interesting reading: Cook, Carberry, Root, Bell, Ballance, Bairstow, Stokes, Bresnan, Finn, Tremlett, Panesar. If it is a joke, it is a particularly thought-provoking one, because it is not difficult to find arguments to support this particular XI. One argument against it is that the attack is not particularly penetrating, but then Anderson, Broad and Swann have not been particularly penetrating and, if Steve Finn proves expensive, there is a mix of containing and more attacking bowlers to support him. Finn could bowl short, attacking spells, flat out, just concentrating on intimidating and taking wickets. The series is lost, it is time to try something new and hope that Alistair Cook can also win the toss.