Ashes Preview
English Revolutionaries or Australian World Champions?
English Revolutionaries or Australian World Champions?
Who will triumph in the grandest of all games, and for the smallest trophy of all?
Wednesday 14th June 2023
Walking the waterways of England and Wales and the snaking canals that weave their way through the heart of middle England affords you many pleasures, with the rarest of all perhaps the time and space to think. To muse if you will. You can also pontificate and talk to yourself but I’d suggest keeping such action for the longest stretches of the “cut” when you tend to only have yourself for company, that, and a rare sighting of heron who’ll keep perfectly still until you’re within range before they soar away majestically with the wingspan of a pterodactyl toward a picture postcard arched bridge in the near distance. There were no Jurassic creatures spotted on today’s ramble along the Trent and Mersey Canal but the town of Stone in Staffordshire has a beautifully picturesque canal scored through its beating heart and when approaching the city of Stoke-on-Trent an hour or so later I was welcomed to “Nutbush City Limits” according to the graffiti lining the canal side. Now if you think I’m going to crowbar in Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best” as a means of fast tracking this preview article to a simple conclusion of who will be the best and triumph in the coming Ashes Series between England and Australia well we don’t need another hero around here thank you all the same, but when the heartache is over, who will be holding aloft sport’s smallest trophy?
The tale of the graffiti above is as true as a 50 something cricket fan basking in an early UK Summer “heat-wave” whilst talking to himself as he gambols along the waterways desperately trying to snap that iconic shot of a heron darting for their next perch on the canal side. Swans are easier to capture in a photogenic sense, and I rather believe those snarky buggers rather enjoy the attention. Canadian Geese are best avoided. Ducks are easily enticed with bread. Whispered tales are told of seeing Kingfishers on the outskirts of Nantwich, semi-retired teachers named Paul (everyone I seem to meet on the canals is called Paul) will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Thomas Telford or the route from “Horseshoe Falls” on the Llangollen Canal, and the horse-drawn canal boat I marvelled at with my own eyes as I told my new found friend today how I hitchhiked most of that same exact route this time last year with yet another kindly man named Paul. Yes I hitched a lift aboard a canal boat, the first time I’ve hitch-hiked in any capacity since I was my son’s current age and I was preparing for an all important date by falling asleep on the train and missing my stop! Only I hadn’t. But I pulled the “Emergency” cord anyway as I panicked, jumping onto the embankment with the words of the guard of the train ringing in my soon to be lovelorn ears.
But we don’t have time for tales of unrequited teenage love and hitch hiking with a Glaswegian who couldn’t stop laughing at my predicament. We have a cricketing Ashes battle to preview and as I’ve been saying to myself as I’ve walked along the canals of England and Wales recently, I couldn’t be more excited if you paid me.
World Champions versus the sporting revolutionaries who not only want that particular crown but the Ashes too? A “home” Ashes Summer and not the mania inducing watching of cricket through the night wrapped warmly against a bitingly cold English Winter? The renegades redefining the very sport against the nation who have so often spectacularly changed it themselves and thrown away the cricketing scorebook in the process? A gang of childhood and seasoned mates against a team riding a sport defining wave?
The Ashes is two days away and Friday morning can’t come quickly enough.
“Ashes to Ashes”
Out Now! Hot off the Press!medium.com
Previewing this Ashes Series is as easy as 1, 2, 3 but you don’t tend to get too many 3’s scored these days unless the Aussie batsmen are in a particularly feisty mood and determined to drag some weary English fielders all around their vast Australian ovals, but this series is in England and well 3 is easy, so here’s a lusty and boundary clearing 6 unique reasons for my excitement and the diary entries that are sure to follow as the next 6 weeks play out here in a sizzling Summer in the English cricketing world.
(1) Form Guide
Australia
Well if the past 4 days and 1 morning session at The Oval are any kind of form guide, the newly crowned World Test Champions are in fine fettle indeed! Put into bat on a green seaming wicket, they lost the first hour to a rampant Indian bowling attack using the overhead and wicket conditions brilliantly in their favour before dominating all four days and one morning session thereafter. I’ll elucidate further thoughts as to the make up of their overall squad and possible starting XI in a coming chapter but suffice to say and as I’ve previously alluded to in my earlier diary entries, this is a “team” of 13 rather than a starting 11, and a team that has grown up together, become battle hardened together, and remain as impressive as a cricketing unit desperate to win as they were when the same 13 man “team” dismantled England 4–0 (could and should have been a 5–0 “whitewash”) at the end of 2021 and the earliest days of a new year in 2022.
In between beating their hosts 4–0 just 18 months ago and thoroughly defeating an India team for the crown of world cricket this week, Australia have a Test Match playing record of 7 wins, 3 defeats and 4 draws. A rather patchy record compared with their revolutionary English hosts this Summer and with an interesting current “away” record of a 1–0 series win in Pakistan, a 1–1 drawn series in Sri Lanka and, most recently, a 2–1 series defeat in India.
All of which counts for absolutely nothing come 2 days time and in the Summer cauldron of a heaving, full to the rafters Edgbaston in Birmingham. The same of course can be said for their hosts current form.
England
Whereas Australia’s recent form guide suggests a rather patchy and unflattering record for the Test Champions of the World, England’s is far more straight forward and comprehensive. Since the 4–0 mauling in Australia and the rather humiliating 1–0 series defeat in the West Indies, a new revolutionary broom has swept through the corridors of English cricket. Defeat to South Africa and a home and away defeat to New Zealand aside, with by the soon to be trademarked “barest of margins” and just one run in a Test Match for the ages in late February, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s revolution and reinvention of the grand old game has seen 11 wins from 14, an unheard of, history making 3–0 series demolition of Pakistan on their own soil and amid their transitional and a real tangible sense of sporting revolution, Stokes and McCullum are nurturing a winning team unafraid of losing, dismissive of draws and just desiring of victory whilst having a ball doing so. A fun filled, expressive, no regrets, in the moment desire to entertain and thrill and not to just push the pun intended boundaries of the game, but to rip them apart in a blizzard of 6’s and 4’s, youthful exuberance, three modern day legends of the great game, and a captain on the precipice of joining them.
England are 11 and 3 since the revolutionary wave began and I haven’t watched such exhilarating cricket in my over four decades of love and appreciation for this grandest of all games.
(2) Team News
Australia
With the form guide thrown firmly out of the nearest window, we turn to that 13 man Australian team I keep enthusing about. With a wider published squad including Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Marsh, Jimmy Pierson and the very impressive Todd Murphy, the core 13 man “team” that has been tightly together now for over three years or more will be changed only if Usman Khawaja is dropped and Marcus Harris returns to partner David Warner in the opening of the batting and more obviously, they have to find a space in their supreme bowling attack for a fit Josh Hazlewood. The rest of a very impressive team picks itself: Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Cameron Green and Alex Carey make up a runs filled middle order before “The Goat” Nathan Lyon, captain Pat Cummins and either the fire of Mitchell Starc or the nagging persistence of Scott Boland will make way for the bounce and accuracy of Josh Hazlewood.
“We’ll give it a good hot crack the next few months and it should be a great series”.
Steve Smith, Australia vice-captain, 14th June 2023.
England
Sadly shorn of their “Mad Professor” and the spin bowling prowess of an injured Jack Leach, 35 year old Moeen Ali has been enticed out of international retirement by a simple text message from his captain that read, apparently, simply “Ashes?”, and heeding the call, the experienced dasher and flasher of a cricketing willow can only add runs at the end of a middle order who, if given the opportunity, will score a bagful of game changing runs way before him. Zak Crawley needs runs early in the series, Ben Duckett is in the form of his life, Ollie Pope is officially the team’s vice-captain (and may be needed if his skipper’s knee injury flares up) before the Yorkshire trio of Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow come before a returning Ali. The preferred starting XI attack, but which won’t and can’t play every Test Match, will surely be Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and one from Matthew Potts, Josh Tongue and personal favourite, Mark Wood. Based on immediate form, Tongue gets the nod but the attack is sure to be rotated throughout the series.
“Hopefully it’s going to be entertaining and hopefully we can bring the urn home”.
Harry Brook, England middle-order batsman, 14th June 2023
(3) A combined XI
Now for some good natured controversy! How do you combine these two great teams, position for position? Here’s my twisted logic:
I adore the batting style and huge promise of Zak Crawley but he’s short of runs and we must start as we mean to go on so he’s out whilst his opening partner Ben Duckett is firmly in. Usman Khawaja is in the same boat as Zak Crawley and I’d never drop the dashing, pugnacious style of David Warner, so we have an even split in terms of opening batsmen. Both Marnus Labuschagne and Ollie Pope will dominate their respective team’s batting orders in the years to come and maybe even in this particular Ashes Series. Both field “under the lid” in the “Short Leg” or “Bat/Pad” position and both are naturally supremely talented. But only one is the officially recognised number one batsman in the world, Labuschagne gets my nod, and I can’t wait to hear him chirping away on the “Stump Mike” in the coming weeks!
Redressing the balance, I can’t, in good conscience, pick Steve Smith over Joe Root, but Travis Head beats out the youthful exuberance and extraordinary batting skills of Harry Brook at number 5, Ben Stokes easily pips the unreal promise of Cameron Green and Jonny Bairstow pips Alex Carey on runs rather than wicket-keeping skills. So it’s 4–3 England at 7 in the batting order before Nathan Lyon eases aside a returning Moeen Ali at number 8 to level the scores once more, leaving an impossible task to split Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, and Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Josh Tongue. So I’m going Cummins, Scott Boland (surprise pick!) and Jimmy Anderson, and I hope my relegation of Stuart Broad to 12th man duties will fire him up for the rest of the series!
David Warner
Ben Duckett
Marnus Labuschagne
Joe Root
Travis Head
Ben Stokes
Jonny Bairstow
Nathan Lyon
Pat Cummins
Scott Boland
Jimmy Anderson
(4) “Home” Ashes Series, 1981–2023
I have been watching Test Match cricket in earnest since my earliest memories of 1981 and so over four decades hence far on planet cricket. In this time, 11 “Home” series have been played and England’s 6 series wins in the 1980’s and 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015 sandwich Aussie domination from the late 1980’s through to the first year of a new Millennium.
Memories pour forth, of watching Ian Botham and Graham Dilley giving it “humpty” (yes, humpty!) on a cold, grey Monday morning with my Dad in 1981 before Bob Willis pinned back his ears and smashed Australian stumps all around Headingley. David Gower hoisting (if indeed you hoist such a little urn of ashes) high to a celebratory 1985 sky, dreading the arrival of David Boon and Merv Hughes in the late 1980’s before Shane Warne bowled the “Ball of the Century” in 1993, bamboozling not just poor old Mike Gatting, but the rest of the cricketing world too.
I was in the lap of redundancy luxury when in 2005 I watched every ball with a babe in arms and remember so, so fondly watching that famous Sunday at Edgbaston when a locked out and locked in crowd disbelieved their own eyes as England somehow managed to win the 2nd Test by just 2 runs. I remember that day so well as I finagled my way into watching this historic morning and early afternoon of cricket whilst being visited by my family and as I sat rooted (superstitiously) to watching from the foot of the stairs, my family watched along with me. Quite the day. As it was listening for hours as I drove my family for a holiday in Wales on the day that Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar grimly and determinedly batted seemingly forever for a draw and I, superstitiously again, had to do something to aid the cause in nearby Wales and so sat on the porch of our holiday home and just willed them to keep batting. Quite the start to the holiday!
And so to the last home series in 2019 and the Summer I wished would never end as now driving a taxi, I listened to every ball on the quintessentially English “Test Match Special” radio commentary and talked incessantly to everyone getting in my car that this Ashes Series was forever on the brink of being the best ever. I distinctly remember driving an elderly lady on a long Sunday afternoon to her daughter’s three or four counties away and she thanked me at journey’s end for letting her listen to the cricket all afternoon. Letting her! Then we have *that* Ben Stokes innings at Headingley and Jack Leach, wiping the mist and sweat from his spectacles as his future captain smashed an innings the cricket world will never forget.
If you’re looking for a strangely fascinating straw to clutch, here are two:
(1) The last Ashes Series in England in 2019 was a 2–2 draw, the first drawn series since 1972 and (2) Whisper it, but Australia haven’t won an Ashes Series in England since 2001 under the captaincy of Steve Waugh and the forces of cricketing nature of Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Glenn McGrath.
(5) Rambling Musings
As I pen these words I have just returned from a sunshine filled stroll along the River Severn in my spiritual home of Ironbridge and the sound of the bells from St Luke’s Church were as sweet sounding as they always are. I played frisbee and “catch” with my beautiful son as quite frankly the summer “heat-wave” sunshine is far too beautiful to ignore and as you may have already gathered, I am constantly drawn to a rambling stroll alongside the waterways of England and nearby Wales. Yesterday was the Trent and Mersey Canal, this morning was Ironbridge and tomorrow, as the Beatles used to sing so sweetly, never knows. Not yet anyway, but I’ll be heading somewhere tomorrow and throughout the Ashes Series and aim to litter my diary entries with whatever madcap stories or reflections I can crowbar into these daily journals.
Watching cricket does wonders for the soul, but so does ambling along a canal or picturesque river. I hope to bring you an alternative flavour for both, which brings us to:
(6) The “Uno Ashes”
I have the very real pleasure of my son’s company every other day which puts me (a Test Match cricket madman) and my son (despises every and any sport) into somewhat of a quandary. When not at the cinema or throwing a frisbee to each other in a scorching sun, my son dominates the television as I write. We make each other laugh. We hang out. I’m in my element.
But I have a need for the television and so I’ve suggested that while I sit watching and making notes and generally hoping England win but not really bothered and just excitedly wanting to watch yet another Ashes Series in real time, I’ll let him beat me at the card game “Uno”. For those unfamiliar with this simple game, it’s coloured cards and numbers and you win by discarding all of yours before your opponent and our rules are whatever is left in the opponent’s hands at the point of victory, say a 4, a 6 and a 9, well that’s 19 points towards a game winning total of 100. Once 100 is reached, a game is awarded, and you start again.
So I’m intending on keeping a score throughout the next 6 weeks and will update every daily journal with that day’s vital score from the tussle between the Blackford Boys!
So there we have a preview that was never really going to be a preview, more of a marker set down for the coming weeks. Edgbaston on Friday morning is going to be something else, something extraordinary perhaps, and I can’t see a drawn Test Match out of 5 so there has to be a winner and I see a tight series being won 3–2 and an Ashes Series, and a Summer of 2023, to remember for the ages.
And the 3–2 series winner will be…….
Thanks for reading. Here are days 1, 3 and 5 of the recent World Test Championship as a further appetiser ahead of the start of The Ashes on Friday:
Aussies set down dominant marker ahead of The Ashes
Day 1: World Test Championship, The Oval.medium.com
Green “screamer” at The Oval as Australia favourites for World Crown
Day 3, World Test Championship, The Oval.medium.com
Relentless and Ruthless: Australia, Test Match Champions of the World
Day 5, World Test Championship, The Ovalmedium.com