Ashes 2013
Frenetic
January 3rd 2014
You can just imagine an England
supporter in the crowd watching the action last night and, summarising what he
saw with a dry “cricket’s a funny old game”. Undoubtedly, an Australian fan
overhearing would launch into thirty seconds of abuse, finishing with “well it
ain’t ******* well meant to be!”
For the first time since Nagpur
Test that opened the 2006 series in India (a winter that saw England lose no
fewer than six players to injury), England have three debutants. That side,
which had Cook, Blackwell and Monty making their debut, fell just short of
victory, aided by 60 & 104* from Cook and famously drew the series in
extremis with victory in the 3rd Test. For this game the changes were
not unlike those for the Oval Test: two new bowlers, one of them a spinner,
both players who would scarcely have imagined two weeks before that they would
be in the Test side. After an awful start to the tour, Gary Ballance, in
contrast, was extremely close to making his debut at Perth until England
re-thought the balance of their side the previous day. There were plenty of pundits
who would have played Ballance at the Oval.
As expected, Monty Panesar was dropped.
And to compound it, a statement was released soon after play started that made
clear that he was fit and available. Many people now speculate that his
international career is over, which has been a tragic waste. While Essex have
given him a chance to re-build his career next season there is also the
possibility that he will go down the Sajid Mahmood (another Essex signing) route.
Monty compensated for his lack of athleticism with fun, hard work and sharp
bowling skills; with the first two gone and the third having waned a lot in the
last year, he is a luxury in the side and, when you are 4-0 down, you cannot
afford them. While many people were unhappy with Scott Borthwick as his
replacement, he is young, undoubtedly skilled and is developing into a fine
bat, so his bowling is a bonus in this Test.
Many expected Tim Bresnan to be
dropped, despite his efforts at Melbourne. He will play a fair amount for
Yorkshire early season and no one will be surprised if he is back in the side
next summer, bowling with renewed vigour. Someone had to move over for big Boyd
Rankin and Tim Bresnan is nothing if not a gentleman.
Gary Ballance’s debut came, to
the surprise of many, at the expense of Joe Root and not of Michael Carberry. Root
has been struggling since he was moved up the order when Nick Compton was
dropped, as many predicted he would. Ballance and Root are flatmates and have
gone through the Yorkshire system together, so this must have been tough for
both to swallow, but Root needs a break to work on his game a little and get
his feet moving again to allow him to play with freedom. As Carberry had more
runs in the first four Tests than anyone other than KP and more than the captain,
it would have been a gift to the critics for him to be dropped, but there is a
feeling that this is his last chance to make a major score.
After that, the report card
sounds pretty familiar. The Australian top order struggled again and were 97-5
just after lunch (Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander must be licking their lips in
anticipation). George Bailey failed again. And Brad Haddin was waiting…
Once again Haddin rescued
Australia – he is expected to retire after this Test, so Australia will almost
certainly go to South Africa without the security of his rescue acts – in company
of Steve Smith, who looked all at sea initially, but gritted it out. When Boyd
Rankin pulled up with a hamstring problem after only eight overs in which he
had added some menace to the attack and Scott Borthwick was duly attacked
violently, things looked grim, especially as Smith and Haddin then went after
Ben Stokes too.
Not everything was gloomy for
the debutant. Despite some nerves that saw his length suffer and some rough
treatment, Scott Borthwick also bowled some very fine deliveries and kept his
nerve, earning his first Test wicket when Mitch Johnson launched one haymaker
too many. This did not look like Simon Kerrigan Mk II, or even Bruce McGain –
Borthwick looks like he will make an impact, if he is treated correctly. That
means getting some protection, having plenty of sympathetic treatment and
persisting with him even if his first match is disappointing. While his bowling
effort can by no stretch of the imagination be described as good, it was not
the disaster that many had predicted and some England fans had even hoped…
there is some steel there and we may just see it in the next few days.
Borthwick is being treated with
the same sort of scepticism that has greeted Ben Stokes in this series. After a
century and now figures of 6-99, Ben Stokes though has announced himself in a
big way and looks a certain starter next summer. He is still too high at six in
the order, but without him England would not be able to play a five-bowler
attack. In this Test they would have been in desperate straits without the
extra seamer as, bizzarely, Boyd Rankin came back for one delivery and pulled
up again but, apparently, he will be fit to bowl in the second innings so,
whatever it is that ails him, it is not serious. Ideally, England would like to
be able to play a wicket keeper at six, Stokes at seven and Borthwick at eight,
with Broad at nine. This would allow some flexibility to pick the number ten
and jack to suit the situation and give a potentially very potent lower middle order.
Knocking over Australia for 326
is not a disaster, but England need to find some fire in their bellies with the
bat and need to be positive, but not reckless. Push the singles, rotate the
strike, mess with the bowlers’ lines and keep the scoreboard ticking over.
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