Australia: Winning the world, chasing the Ashes

Australia have won ICC world titles across the 3 formats in the last 8 years, but for a set of players this is the last chance to win the Ashes in England

Chances are the photo hasn’t escaped your notice, one where, flanked by Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, stand David Warner, Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, showing off the ICC trophy trinity – ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and World Test Championship mace – at the Oval on Sunday.

This Australia team has fallen short on two counts — winning a Test series in India and the Ashes in England.(ICC Twitter)

It’s a coveted set collected across eight years and three continents, albeit during a phase which even the most ardent of Australian cricket followers would hesitate to call glorious.

It’s anyway not easy to do an encore of what Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s Australia had achieved for nearly two decades — breaching every known frontier and making a habit of winning ICC events. Yet, for a bunch that had to undergo natural transition, commit to an unprecedented cultural churn while losing Smith and Warner to lengthy bans in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018 and concede consecutive home Test series defeats to India, this is some assortment of trophies. Add to this the drawn Test series in Sri Lanka and the 1-0 win in Pakistan in 2022 and this generation is nearly golden. Not comprehensively though, because this Australia team has fallen short on two counts — winning a Test series in India and the Ashes in England.

It is anybody’s guess how the tours of India would have panned out had Australia not imploded in a 188-run chase in Bengaluru (2017) or during the second innings in Delhi last year. Similarly, nearly there have been consecutive Ashes series in England since 2015, with Australia coming closest to winning in 2019 when they were 2-0 up before losing two of the next three Tests. Smith owned that Ashes, piling up runs of Bradmanesque proportions on his return from the ban. But for Ben Stokes, who stole the thunder at Headingley in possibly the greatest Test after Eden 2001, Australia looked poised to win their first Ashes in England since 2001. The wait has now entered its 22nd year.

Smith is 34. Warner, 36, will retire next year. Nathan Lyon is 35. And Cummins, Starc and Josh Hazlewood are all in their 30s. So, for all intent and purpose, this Ashes is the last chance at course correction for a very special bunch of Australia players. There is nothing about England’s conditions they don’t know. And the preparation looks solid as well. Smith has nicely batted himself into gear with a hundred in the first innings of the WTC final; Warner was flamboyant in the only hour of play when conditions at the Oval actually favoured India’s fast bowlers; Lyon took five wickets while Cummins and Starc persevered at the relentless level required to dismiss India on a good batting surface.

It’s no secret that the rhythm of this Australia side’s progress has been regularly underpinned by the success of these players. At an age where we regularly talk about poor technique, Smith is almost an iconoclast, finding unconventional ways to stay true to the essence of Test cricket— batting long and playing decisive innings. In fact, among the countries he has toured for at least 10 Tests, Smith averages the highest in England — 60.70. Lyon has just come off a WTC cycle where he topped with 88 wickets. And in Cummins, Australia have not only found a leader who doesn’t cast a huge shadow on the team but also a tireless team man who literally led a two-man pace attack with Starc that bowled 212 overs in the grubby heat of Pakistan.

The manifestation of their efforts has had a profound effect on Australia’s performance in the last two years. That means not panicking on Day 5 in Lahore despite Pakistan reaching 136/2 at lunch on a flat surface or running through Sri Lanka riding a nine-wicket haul by Lyon on a sticky Galle pitch after a resilient 145 from Smith. Barring Australia, no other team were unbeaten at home in the last WTC cycle. And that was partially due to Smith’s constant vigil at some of the most important junctures — first the Ashes, then against West Indies and finally in Sydney when Australia needed to bat South Africa out of the third and final Test.

But England are set to challenge them on another level purely because of the brand of cricket they currently vouch for. It knocked the stuffing out of New Zealand and battered South Africa, but to be fair only Australia bring with them the kind of aggression that can push England to second guess. At the heart of this steel throbs the consolidated experience and skills of Smith, Warner, Lyon, Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood. To win an Ashes in England is a rare accolade. And to achieve it at a stage of their careers whose end they know may not be too far should be enough to spur this special bunch of Australians.