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Ashes: Edgy England, green Lord’s, upbeat Australia
After losing the thrilling first Ashes Test, cricket fans impatiently wait for another classic between England’s Bazball and the counter from the Aussies.
One Test into the Ashes, and already England are on the backfoot. They won’t admit it though. This is Lord’s where James Anderson has been the most prolific seamer since Ian Botham, and England aren’t going to hold back. Except, Anderson arrives at his turf knowing he may well have come up short during Australia’s victorious chase at Edgbaston.
England are a specialist spinner short as well. A week was deemed long enough for Moeen Ali to recover from a right index finger injury. He hasn’t but England —possibly encouraged by Joe Root giving the old ball a fair tweak at Edgbaston —have decided against blooding young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed despite adding him to the squad. Hence the fourth seamer. Mark Wood is still not fit enough for the rigours of Test cricket. Hence the young and inexperienced Josh Tongue.
England might maintain they won’t take their foot off the pedal, but since competitive sport at the end of the day is more about winning and less about entertaining, this sure feels like a less than desirable scenario. Man to man, England look a shade undercooked than Australia. And that can’t be ignored in the larger context of retaining the Ashes — England have to win at Lord’s to draw level in the series. Incorporate that prerequisite and the job description is bound to change drastically.
Will Root be as cavalier as he was in Birmingham if England are three down the next time? Or Jonny Bairstow, for that matter? Will Ben Stokes come up with another surprise declaration? Entertaining or trying to win, the choice seems easy. But not when you are England and bent on changing how the game is perceived and played.
Sustaining the facade is a different deal altogether. The Bazball approach to cricket can be a death knell to seamers, as elaborated in an unexpected column from Anderson in The Telegraph, describing the Edgbaston pitch as his kryptonite, saying “if all the pitches are like that I’m done in the Ashes series”. Fast bowler Ollie Robinson too wrote in Wisden, “with the way (Australia) are playing at the moment, a pitch with a bit more movement would benefit us hugely”. The grass cover at Lord’s, thus, looks like divine intervention.
This shouldn’t rile Australia. If anything, this Ashes series has so far gone as per expectation, with Australia refusing to be drawn into playing a brand of cricket England feel is necessary to keep the game alive. “Our number one goal when we go out there is to score runs, and if it takes longer, it doesn't matter to us,” said skipper Pat Cummins on Tuesday. And as long as bowlers get wickets, he isn’t going to break his head over their economy either.
“You could probably argue we weren’t at our best either last week, but we’ve been really successful over the last two years by just playing our own way ... I thought we managed our tempos really well.
“So, I think you’d look at conditions, and who do you think is going to create the most opportunities. Obviously, everyone’s not hoping to go for six runs an over, but if it does (happen), it’s not the end of the world.”
With overcast conditions predicted and England naming an all-pace attack, scoring can’t be easy, especially in the morning session. Stokes didn’t want to go overboard in his expectation. “We’ve seen there’s quite a lot of grass on the wicket which is a bit green. Traditionally, Lord’s has offered more for the seamers,” he said. “We wanted to play Mark Wood. We felt he could definitely start, but with conversations we felt the extra week ... would give him a better chance to play a full part from Leeds (third Test) onward.
“We brought Tonguey into the team as a like-for-like ... so I'm looking forward to seeing him continue on the great start he had against Ireland here (he got 5/66 in the second innings). Being able to use him in the fourth seamer role is something I’m looking forward to and he’s really looking forward to the challenge as well.”
If Australia stay true to their process, Nathan Lyon will play his 100th consecutive Test. But they could be tempted into playing Mitchell Starc, not only because this adds a left-arm dimension to the pace attack, but also because Scott Boland went for plenty in Edgbaston. Boland, however, is more a seamer, and since Edgbaston wasn’t a paradise for his tribe, Josh Hazlewood’s place could be under the scanner as well.
Cummins though wanted to wait before taking a call. “We’ll work it out tomorrow, give the wicket another day, see what they do with it, see what the weather’s like,” he said. “I thought everyone who played last week did a great job. We’ve got Starcy there who didn’t play last week, who comes into the conversation as well.”
