The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

ASHES: Talking points as Australia win 5-0

5th January, 2014
Advertisement
Australia celebrate taking a wicket at the SCG. (AFP PHOTO / Saeed KHAN)
Expert
5th January, 2014
128
3363 Reads

Where does this rank among Australia’s greatest Test wins of the past 20 years? Did England’s three debutants give any reason for hope?

These were two of the questions spawned as Australia completed a 5-0 series victory by demolishing England for 166 to record a thumping 281-run win at the SCG.

Where does this rank among Australia’s greatest Test wins of the past 20 years?
Dethroning the West Indies in the Caribbean in 1995.

Vanquishing the India hoodoo on the subcontinent in 2004.

Executing ruthless revenge against England in 2006-07.

Smashing the Windies 5-0 in 2000-01.

And now… pummelling England 5-0 just months after losing 0-3.

Where would you place this summer’s incredible whitewash among Australia’s greatest Test series wins of the past two decades?

Advertisement

There is one thing which is certain – this scoreline was more unexpected than any of those aforementioned Aussie triumphs.

England entered this series as warm favourites. The only predictions of 5-0 were in their favour.

Somewhere in the world right now, a mug punter is sporting a monstrous grin as he clutches a betting ticket which says, ‘Australia 5-0’.

Even they probably did not expect such a scoreline but rather couldn’t resist the juicy odds which were about 70-1 prior to the start of the series.

This Ashes has spawned many enthralling Australian storylines.

The rebirth of Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson.

The emergence of Nathan Lyon, David Warner and Steve Smith as future stars.

Advertisement

The late blooming of dual-centurion Chris Rogers.

The awe-inspiring potency and consistency of the Australian attack.

But is this victory on the same level as those I listed above?

To my mind it does not have the same significance as either the 1995 or 2004 wins.

The unseating of the West Indies as Test cricket’s superpower serves as the marking post for Australia’s golden era, which continued for another 13 years.

The triumph in India was the so-called ‘final frontier’ for Australia during that phenomenal era of success. It was their crowning achievement.

This summer’s 5-0 result does, however, compare favourably with the 2006-07 whitewash.

Advertisement

That series will always hold greater sentimentality since it marked the retirements of four extraordinary Australian Test players in Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn.

But Australia had a far better team than England so the lopsided result was not particularly shocking.

For that reason, this cleansweep deserves to be rated as the greater achievement.

It might not be the Windies in 1995 or India in 2004, but it is not far behind.

Did England’s three debutants give them any reason for hope?
No. No they did not.

While England will have been buoyed by Ben Stokes’ combative efforts with blade and ball this series, the three players blooded at Sydney offered zero encouragement.

In one way Boyd Rankin, Gary Ballance and Scott Borthwick were on a hiding to nothing given they were joining a shellshocked side being toyed with by a rampant Aussie outfit.

Advertisement

On the other hand that situation meant they were not burdened by high expectations.

It is difficult to say which player had the worst debut.

Towering quick Rankin was always likely to struggle for rhythm given he had not bowled in a match for more than five weeks.

Even that outing in Alice Springs offered him limited preparation as it was restricted to two days and he only completed 14.5 overs.

In this Test, Rankin laboured in every possible way.

He scattered deliveries all over the pitch, never managing to build anything close to pressure on the Aussie batsman.

His poor preparation no doubt contributed to the fact he twice had to leave the field mid-over because of cramps.

Advertisement

Unfortunately, he may never get the opportunity to improve on this forgetful introduction to Test cricket.

Rankin turns 30 this year and was picked in this series seemingly on a hunch, considering his form in county cricket had not merited his inclusion.

England stocked up on beanpole pacemen this summer in an ill-advised strategy which has backfired.

Gary Ballance, meanwhile, is almost certain to earn greater patience from the English selectors.

With England having lost or dropped three members of their top seven this summer, and uncertainty surrounding the future of veteran Kevin Pietersen, they desperately need to unearth new batting talent.

Ballance looked all at sea against Nathan Lyon in both innings.

Playing tentatively from the crease, he was a wicket waiting to happen against the accurate Aussie tweaker.

Advertisement

England’s next two series are against the spin-heavy attacks of Sri Lanka and India. Ballance has plenty of work to do on his play against the slow bowlers if he is to survive those series.

Borthwick has no such concerns. He is unlikely to retain his place in the line-up.

Drafted into the England side as a frontline spin replacement for veteran Monty Panesar, Borthwick looked a long way short of Test standard with the ball.

He served up a buffet of long hops and full tosses in the first innings, probably hampered by nerves.

His figures of 1-49 from seven overs were scarcely better than Simon Kerrigan’s much more maligned debut in the final Test of the previous Ashes.

Borthwick was slightly improved in the second innings, but his figures of 3-33 were very misleading.

His dismissal of Brad Haddin was from a full toss, Chris Rogers handed him a return catch with an awful stroke to an unthreatening length ball and Ryan Harris gifted him his third wicket with a wild tailender’s heave.

Advertisement

In between these breakthroughs he continued to send down a generous helping of dross.

His bowling looked marginally better than that of Aussie part time leggie Steve Smith.

As Borthwick was being hit to all parts of the ground we were reminded repeatedly he bats at first drop for his county side Durham.

It mattered little as he made five runs across his two digs.

Stokes is undoubtedly a future star.

But on this limited evidence, Rankin and Borthwick in particular are well shy of being Test-standard bowlers.

close