England and Australia ready for opening salvos

Vic Marks/Trent Bridge

Here we go then. Thankfully the time for speculation is almost gone. Today at Trent Bridge, Shane Watson or Alastair Cook will take guard in sunshine, so it seems, and cricket’s oldest private battle will be resumed.

It will not be that private. The press box will be packed and so, too, the stands; the TV cameras will zoom in on every combatant exposing any signs of anxiety or fear on the faces of every cricketer lucky enough to be involved. On two continents even those with a passing knowledge of cricket will want to know the score. They may not be too bothered in Mumbai or Multan but from Melton Mowbray to Melbourne they will be avidly following the progress of Root or Rogers with furrowed brows.

The first Test of an Ashes series is special. Whether the same excitement will still be there when the two captains toss up in Sydney on 3 January before the 10th consecutive Test between these two nations remains to be seen. If that is the case, we will have witnessed much staggering drama along the way.

The clinical view must be that this series cannot equal the last two in England. In 2005, we witnessed the most dramatic and the best Ashes series of all, when there was never a dull hour, let alone a dull day. The 2009 contest seldom touched those heights but the tension remained until the final day at The Oval, where Cook held the catch which ensured that the Ashes were regained.

This time England set off as favourites, a little uncomfortably as recently they have been prone to play in a constipated manner when expected to win.

Australia’s journey to the opening match at Trent Bridge has been eccentric, to say the least, but England’s has been as tranquil as it gets. There have been injury concerns over Graeme Swann, Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad but it now seems as if all three will be fit to play. Maybe the lure of the Ashes really can be a great healer. In considerable contrast to their opponents the make-up of the England side has caused only minimal head-scratching along with some local heartache.

It has been a tough month for Nick Compton. The Ashes is the pinnacle and he is going to miss out at the start of the series. The selectors have opted to open with Joe Root, with Jonny Bairstow batting at six. This may not be fair on Compton but fairness is not and should not be the first criterion for selectors. Their duty is to pick what they consider the best, not the fairest, team and essentially they have opted for Bairstow rather than Compton. As it happens, both average 31 in Test cricket.

Compton is probably better informed about the Australian bowlers than anyone else. He has faced all of them in the last week either for Somerset or for Worcester.

The Australians will certainly target the two young Yorkshiremen, Root and Bairstow, who are the only players in the England side not to have experienced the peculiar thrill of an Ashes contest (Australia are likely to have five Ashes debutants in their team).

The make-up of the Australian side is harder to predict but the assumption is that they will stick with the bowling attack used at Taunton: James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon. This quartet is not so experienced as England’s. Pattinson and Starc will bowl wayward spells but, when they click, they are dangerous.

Australia’s new coach, Darren Lehmann, has been as candid as he can be about his batting line-up. He has already said that Watson and Chris Rogers will open. A month ago it might have been Ed Cowan and David Warner. Whoever they select, England will have the more experienced line-up.

Even the Australians acknowledge that England are the favourites. In fact they seem happy as underdogs. Starc made a point of mentioning the 1989 series the other day as a source of encouragement for the Australians (Starc, by the way, must have been doing his homework, because he was not born until 1990).

In 1989 Australia were also second favourites; they had lost the previous two Ashes series and the anticipation was that Allan Border’s side would be swept away. That was the summer during which Graham Gooch was usually lbw to Terry Alderman and half the England side were eyeing an ill-conceived but highly lucrative rebel tour to South Africa. Australia won 4-0. Do not expect that scoreline this time. But nor should anyone anticipate an easy victory for England. Despite everything the Australians are looking like a team again and it is the Ashes.

                   — Guardian News and Service

Key dates in Ashes history

1882: Concept of Ashes accidentally born when, after England suffer their first home loss to Australia at The Oval, the Sporting Times publishes a mock obituary which says the body of English cricket “will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”.

1911/12: Jack Hobbs leads England’s batting with 662 runs at 82.75 as they win 4-1 in Australia.

1920/21: Australia record the first Ashes whitewash, winning 5-0 as fast bowler Jack Gregory runs through England’s batting.

1930: Australia’s Don Bradman, cricket’s greatest batsman, scores 974 runs—still a world record for any Test series—including four hundreds with a best of 334 at Leeds as the tourists win the Ashes campaign 2-1.

1932/33: England’s ‘Bodyline’ tour of Australia sees skipper Douglas Jardine instruct fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to bowl at the batsmen’s bodies to a packed legside field in a bid to curb Bradman’s phenomenal run-scoring. England win 4-1 but even now, 80 years on, the series remains arguably the most controversial in cricket history.

1948: Bradman leads his ‘Invincibles’ on an unbeaten tour of England but, in his final innings and needing just four for a career Test average of 100, he was bowled for a second-ball duck by England leg-spinner Eric Hollies. Bradman had to settle for an average of 99.94 — a mark no one else has come near.

1956: Off-spinner Jim Laker carves himself a place in cricket history by taking 19 out of a possible 20 Australian wickets during England’s victory at Old Trafford. Laker’s 19 for 90 remains a world record Test haul.

1972: Bob Massie enjoys the most stunning Ashes debut of any bowler when, in his very first Test match, the Western Australia swing specialist takes 16 for 137 at Lord’s.

1981: Ian Botham turns the course of this year’s Ashes series on its head with a succession of brilliant performances after resigning the England captaincy with the hosts 1-0 down after two Tests. In the third Test at Headingley, England, following on, are all but beaten at 135 for seven when Botham launches a stunning counter-attack in making 149 not out to lay the foundations for an astonishing win.

1993: Shane Warne marks his entrance into Ashes cricket with the “ball of the century” when his first delivery of the Old Traford Test pitches outside Mike Gatting’s leg-stump and then spins viciously to clip the top of the off bail. Leg-spinner Warne goes on to become one of cricket’s greatest bowlers.

2005: England regain the Ashes in a thrilling series that sees them win by just two runs at Edgbaston before Kevin Pietersen’s brilliant 158 at The Oval seals the return of the urn.

2010/11: England win an Ashes series in Australia for the first time in 24 years, triumphing 3-1 as opening batsman Alastair Cook scores 766 runs at an an average of 127.66.