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Originally this was going to be an article on the squad to take to the Mother Country to take the urn, but it seems my fellow Roarers have gone to the well many times with that idea.
So instead I’d thought I’d offer some thoughts on winning in the Old Dart.
1) Shane Watson must let it be known before the Tour what part he intends to play
I could say that this is just a pet peeve of mine but Watson has been trying the patience of a nation with his will he/won’t he notions of bowling.
If he intends to be an all rounder then he needs to put it to the selectors that he can do so. Likewise, if he feels he cannot, than it needs to be made clear to them as well well before any side or squad is selected.
As the Vice Captain he owes it to the team for them to know exactly where they stand vis-a-vis the role he will play in their team.
2) Cowan should play
Ed Cowan got a bad rap for his Indian tour. Many believe that the selectors ‘love him’ without giving much thought to the reasons behind it. He got a couple of diabolical decisions during the Indian tour and has one thing that the Watsons and the Warners of the Australian line-up lack- the ability to accumulate and wait.
These abilities will suit him well when it comes to seaming decks and allow Australia to take shine off a new ball that could wreak havoc with a batting line-up that is not known for its expertise against swing.
3) Part timers should get the odd roll of the arm
English decks are often moist and the weather is often cloudy. Under these conditions, sometimes the going can be tough for batting and batsmen will dig in, waiting for the bowling side to lose accuracy.
A part timer in this situation can be employed to break partnerships, particularly after a torrid spell of fast bowling. Australian part timers have often picked up vital wickets on English pitches due to the little bit of extra help they receive. It may be something for Michael Clarke to keep in mind.
4) Players, administration and coaches need to remain united
If the Homework scandal in India (I refuse to call it ‘Homeworkgate’) was to draw a line in the sand between acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour, Michael Clarke and Mickey Arthur had better hope it worked. The last thing that Australia needs is disunity and laxity between the echelons of its cricket community in its Ashes tour.
5) Warner needs to pull his head in
Aggression on the cricket pitch is to be expected. Idiocy is not. David Warner had an Indian tour to forget and would do well to remember that he is not a Steve Waugh or a Matthew Hayden.
Nor would either of those cricketers be so ungracious to tweet about their opponents being ‘soft’ mentally. For them, aggression began and ended on the field.
6) Warner is not an opener for English conditions
Michael Slater was an attacking opener and so is Virender Sehwag – so why not David Warner? He has blitzed attacks on Australia pitches and made them look decidedly ordinary.
However, he has not scored a century on a pitch outside of Australia, either in ODIs or Tests.
This seems to point to a susceptibility to pitches that give a bit more to bowlers than batsmen, and England is full of those. It may be worth therefore keeping him down the order a bit til the ball gets a little older and the foundations are established to allow him to play with a little more abandon.
7) Get Cook cheaply
Speaks for itself. Alistair Cook is a truly terrifying prospect at the moment. Not because he scores so fast but because he is so calm and collected.
There are more talented batsmen in the world and there are more attacking ones too but there are none that know their own game like Cook does. As such to lure him into a false shot is that much harder and to place fields for him is like playing chess with checker pieces.
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