If Australia are to retain the Ashes in England this series, they must learn from the dramatic events that transpired in their glorious 5-0 victory over the Poms in 2013-14, and before it’s too late.
The parallels between that series and the one unfolding before our very eyes right now is uncanny, to say the least.
England headed into that series as firm favourites after their solid, yet unconvincing, 3-0 win on their own turf earlier that year, with their experienced stars running amok.
The number of fifties converted into tons were plentiful, and as a result not a single soul even so much as glanced at their respective ages and realised that the vast majority of their long and decorated careers were very much behind them.
No, it seemed as though they would play forever.
Instead, it was the Australian team that found themselves under the microscope of the UK and Aussie press for the entirety of the five-Test series, and even the weeks preceding, during which they sacked their head coach in Mickey Arthur.
Undoubtedly, that 2013 series was a hard fought battle, and one that few of us will ever forget, largely thanks to the fairytale and record-breaking 10th wicket partnership between debutant number 11 Ashton Agar and the late Phillip Hughes in the first Test.
The duo’s gallant efforts with the blade to dig their country out of trouble eventually proved unsuccessful, as did the campaign of their entire side throughout the five Tests.
As a result, the newly appointed Darren Lehmann regrouped his men and headed home to galvanise them and mount the greatest ever upset in Ashes history.
Months later, the English followed, landing upon Australian soil with outrageous levels of confidence that would eventually prove their undoing. Little did they know, the great Ian Botham’s gleeful predictions of a 5-0 whitewash would come true.
Things were looking dandy for the tourists in the early stages of the first Test at the Gabba, with Stuart Broad’s short-ball dismissal of inspirational skipper Michael Clarke convincing the UK media that they had discovered captain Clarke’s kryptonite.
That was when the formidable combination of wicketkeeper-bastman Brad Haddin and the firebrand all-rounder Mitchell Johnson came together to crush the hopes and dreams of the English – something they would continue to do all series.
By Day 3 of the Sydney Test, the tourists had been sent home with their tails between their legs and extremely long odds to win back the urn next year.
You’d be forgiven for thinking they couldn’t win a single game this series, and yet here we are.
England is 1-0 up after a comprehensive victory in Cardiff and Australia is in disarray.
They entered this series as rank outsiders and are in complete control thus far despite losing the prior series – the exact position we were in for 2013-14.
And so, as the Australian selectors contemplate bringing the careers of dramatically out of form veterans Shane Watson and Brad Haddin to an end, hopefully they will consider the actions their English counterparts undertook last series and do the polar opposite.
When the mainstays of the English cricket team in Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Matt Prior suddenly dropped to mind-bogglingly poor levels of form in Australia, the axe swung and it swung hard.
Swann (retired) and Prior had disappeared after the third Test, while Pietersen managed to survive the duration of the series but was effectively banished from being selected for his country ever again.
From there, everything went even further downhill – if that was at all possible. The English found themselves on the wrong end of the third Ashes whitewash in history and tasted victory just once throughout the entire tour of Australia.
With that mind, hopefully Lehmann and company will be able to look past the delectable temptation of throwing in the younger and seemingly more adept duo of Mitchell Marsh and Peter Nevill, who will no doubt play a major role for Australia at some point in the future.
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