The Ashes series in Australia is going ahead.
Although there could well be a bumpy road ahead. For starters the Australian public who have had to endure lockdowns and quarantines will be looking to give the Englishmen plenty of verbal, based on the claims made in the media about them not prepared to be away from their families, and then allegedly moaning about their families having to quarantine.
This has not gone down well, especially as there are more than 40,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs as wanting to come home from overseas. Many of these people having been separated from families and loved ones for well over a year.
It has been reported that the players have been offered resort-style accommodation on the Gold Coast, while their families if arriving for Christmas and the new year will do their quarantine at a Yarra Valley wine resort north of Melbourne. Once again this has not gone down well. Why do their families receive preferential treatment, when to all intents and purposes they are coming to Australia for a holiday?
One thing that is certain is that the England team are not going to be enjoying a holiday. They are likely to receive a very chilly reception when they arrive and based on the team selected a roasting when they step onto the field of play.
At the start of the 1950’s English cricket writer JM Kilburn wrote that “the elements for England success in Australia include:
- A Captain with experience of Australian conditions.
- More youth than old age (by cricketing standards) in the team.
- Fast bowling of high quality. ”
England has a captain with experience of Australia. This will be Joe Root’s third tour down under and he will head to Australia in a rich vein of form having scored 1455 runs at 66 with six centuries and a top score of 228 this year. No one can argue that he has carried a very mediocre England batting line-up all year. A Batting line-up that has had many former Test cricketers asking how they were ever selected to play in the longest form of the game, with techniques so flawed. These techniques will be severely tested in Australia.
England’s batting is going to be a real issue on fast and bouncy tracks. Root is the only batsman with a Test average in the 40’s. (49.76). Batsmen with averages in the 30’s include Bairstow (33.84), Butler (33.33), Hameed (32.33), Pope (32.16) and opener Rory Burns (31.75). Bairstow has had 137 Test innings, Butler 92, Hameed 10 Pope 34 including four not outs and Burns 52. As determined and pugnacious as Burns is, qualities that warrant respect, one wonders how he will cope in Australia. In 2019 he averaged 39 against the Australians in England with one century and two fifties. England are going to need their opening pair to fire or they will witness the series slipping from their grasp very quickly.
If we look at their form in the past year only two of the England batsmen selected have averaged over 30; this is excluding their captain. Dawid Malan at 34 was recalled for the last two Tests against India and averaged 35. While Burns averaged 32.
Looking at point two of Kilburn’s recipe for success this squad of 17 players has an average age of 29. Ten players are over 30. Of the remaining seven players five are aged under 25. No doubt the selectors will argue that they have gone for experience. However only seven of the players selected were part of the 2017/18 Ashes tour to Australia, Root, Anderson, Broad, Malan, Overton and Woakes. All bar Woakes and Overton played all five test matches as England lost the series 4-0.
On that tour England had three batsman end the series with averages in the 40’s Root, Sir Alistair Cook and Dawid Malan. Australia had seven batsmen finish the series with averages over 40, two averaged over 100, Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh, one in the 70’s Shaun Marsh and one in the 60’s, David Warner.
Australia’s batting has looked fragile in recent times with the home side reliant on the form of Marnus Labuschagne and Smith. The big question is do England have fast bowling of high quality? Do they have bowlers to put that top order under pressure?
The loss of Jofra Archer is a huge blow as he has genuine pace and would cause problems with the lift he would be able to get in Australia. The absence of Ben Stokes is another huge gap, as again his bowling has been known to turn a game. To add to their bowling woes Olly Stone has also been ruled out through stress fractures to his back.
Mark Wood is their one genuine pace bowler. However at 31 and never having toured Australia there will be some concerns as to how he performs and also whether he gets through the tour. Wood has taken 64 test wickets at an average of 33.10 in 21 test matches. Concerning is how many matches he has missed because of injuries.
England fans myopic view of the world sees them celebrate the selection of 39 year old James Anderson and 35 year old Stuart Broad. Both have been magnificent servants to the game globally and to England, but do they really have what is required at this stage of their careers to win the Ashes for England?
Both played all five test matches in the 2017/18 Ashes series in Australia. Anderson topped the bowling averages with 17 wickets at 27.82 and took his first ever five wicket haul in Australia in Adelaide, during the day/night test. Broad managed only 11 wickets at 47.72. Chris Woakes who will be 32 on this tour took 10 wickets in the four test matches he played at an average of 49.50. These three bowlers are no doubt earmarked to lead England’s attack, and one wonders how four years on they are going to be able to turn back the clock and tear through Australia.
The one plus for England is that Ollie Robinson, who was suspended for a tweet from his teenage years after making his England debut showed he can play at this level. Robinson has taken 21 wickets at an average of 22.28. However to be effective he is going to need strong support from the veterans and also Craig Overton, as well as England’s spinners.
While James Anderson is to be applauded that he is still playing Test cricket as an opening bowler at 39 years of age one has to wonder how that is the case. Where are the other fast bowlers putting pressure on him? Despite his longevity it is baffling as to why he has been selected to tour Australia. This will be his fifth Ashes tour to Australia in which he has played 18 matches. He has bowled in 34 innings and taken 60 wickets at an average of 35.43. That is less than 2 wickets per innings. His worst return on any overseas tour. As mentioned he has only taken one five wicket haul in a Test match in four previous tours. So he is hardly going to strike fear into the Australian batsmen.
For Stuart Broad this will be his fourth tour to Australia and it is sad to say that his record is not much better. He has played in 12 matches and bowled in 21 innings. He has taken 34 wickets at an average of 37.17 and like Anderson has only taken one five wicket haul.
Many may scoff at the observation made seventy years ago, but it has merit. England has only won the Ashes in Australia five times in 17 series since that observation was made. In 2010/11 when Andrew Strauss led England to Australia he too had a squad of 17 players. He had previous experience in Australia, and the average age of his squad was 27. He had only four players over 30 years of age, the bulk of his side were in their prime between the ages of 25 and 30.
A 28 year old Anderson took 24 wickets at 26.04, Chris Tremlett aged 29 took 17 wickets at 23.35 in three matches, 21 year old Steve Finn took 14 wickets at 33.14 in three matches and 25 year old Tim Bresnan 11 wickets at 19.54 in two matches. They also had Graeme Swann take 15 wickets.
The formula leading to England’s success in Australia in 1986/87 was the same.
Maybe come the end of January they will be wishing that they had indeed postponed the tour, as one feels that the balance, the experience and the technique to win the Ashes in Australia is missing in this squad, and it could be a very tough Australian Summer. Then again often in adversity we see new stars take centre stage… The opportunity is there for England’s tourists to make a name for themselves and change what has proved to be an important selection criteria. The question many are asking is has their focus been enough on the cricket or more on their stay in Australia and their families travel plans? We will all know soon enough.
