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Australian Test captains Warwick Windridge Armstrong (Big Ship), Ricky Ponting (Punter) and Michael Clarke (Pup) are the only three leaders in Test history to oversee a 5-0 Ashes win for Australia.
Armstrong was captain of the 1920-21 Australian team while Punter and Pup led Australia to victory in 2006-07 and 2013-14 respectively.
Interestingly, Armstrong is the only one of the three whose career as an Ashes captain ended in victory. He captained Australia for ten Tests and won eight Sadly, both Ponting and Clarke , ho are among the greatest Aussies to play Test cricket, ended their Ashes careers with series defeats.
After Punter led Australia to a 5-0 series win, they lost three Ashes series in a row. England won the 2009 series 2-1, then retained the 2011 series 3-1 and also won the 2013 series 3-0. Ponting subsequently retired after playing on as a batsman for some more time.
Australia won the 2013-14 return series 5-0 under Clarke’s captaincy, but the 2015 series was won by England 3-2, with Pup announcing his retirement as well. Punter supported him, saying he wished he had done the same too in 2011.
Let us reflect on the 5-0 win versus England under the captaincy of Clarke versus Alastair Cook’s team. Australia unleashed Mitchell Johnson on the Englishmen with devastating effect.
Not since Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson had such terror been seen in any batsman’s eyes. They were psychologically devastated as well and Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann even pulled out of the series midway.
In this series, the English batsmen were totally in disarray. England’s scores in ten Test innings were 136, 179, 172, 312, 251, 353, 255, 179, 155 and 166. Thus. it can be seen they crossed 300 only twice, scored between 250-260 twice and below 200 as many as six times.
However, England recovered pretty fast after this devastating loss.
At home, they lost to Sri Lanka 0-1 but defeated India 3-1. Touring West Indies they drew the series 1-1, then drew New Zealand 1-1 at home. Thereafter England regained the Ashes winning 3-2 at home. They also won an overseas tour versus South Africa 2-1.
This shows that there have been constant improvements. The English side bats pretty deep, with Jimmy Anderson at 11. They have a settled captain who is also their opener and best batsman. England score 300 plus more often than not.
They have a very settled pace attack too as shown by four different pace bowlers taking five-fors versus Australia in four consecutive innings (Anderson, Steven Finn, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes). Moeen Ali has settled into the role of an off-spinning all-rounder who bats at number eight while Stokes is probably the best all-rounder in the world.
Yet, I feel, even though they had consecutive series wins versus Australia and South Africa, there are certain chinks in the English armour.
They do not have a settled opening partner for their captain. They do not seem to have the killer instinct, as can be seen from losing the last Test match of the series versus both Australia as well as South Africa.
Granted the series were won, but letting down their guard in consecutive contests is not expected of a champion team. Moreover, in their last six series, they have lost at least one Test match.
It is also my belief that while they won the series 3-2 versus Australia, it was just one spell from Broad (8-15 in 9.3 overs) which made the difference between a 3-2 win and a 2-3 loss.
Finally, while Cook has scored nearly 10,000 Test runs, his records versus Australia and South Africa are very average. He has 9964 runs in 126 Tests with 28 tons at 46.56. Yet versus Australia and South Africa he has only four tons in 30 Tests and two tons in 15 Tests with an average of 39.2 and 35.53, respectively.
Six tons in 83 innings certainly is not impressive. If that magic series (the 2010-11 Ashes) is taken out it’s even worse. During that series, in five Tests, he scored 766 runs at 127.66 with three centuries and two 50s in seven innings.
Conversely, if those scores are excluded, he has three tons in 76 innings versus Australia and South Africa. As England are still searching for a second opener, if Cook does not play well, England could be in for serious problems.
What about Australia?
They seem settled. The batting order is in form and relaxed. David Warner, Usman Khwaja, Steve Smith and Adam Voges are all looking in great touch. The uncertainty of where and how to play Shane Watson is over with the decision to drop him.
Mitchell Marsh will probably add balance to the team in the long run. Peter Nevill looks like a good keeper. The quick bowlers look relaxed with Mitchell Starc leading the pack, and Josh Hazlewood providing good support. James Pattinson will be handy too. Finally, Nathan Lyon has shown himself to be an excellent Test spinner.
After overall analysis, I feel Australia have it in them to regain the Ashes.
Interestingly, the next Ashes series will be the 70th between the two and with five drawn series, both great rivals have won 32 series each. Which team will take a 33-32 lead. I feel it will be Australia. Do you agree?
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