This article was prompted by a Roar reader – so many thanks to DTM for this idea.
The Ashes are over and in the final wash-up, most attention has been on the positives: the series win, how well the bowling unit went, Scott Boland’s amazing form, Cameron Green coming good with the ball, some terrific batting by Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Jonny Bairstow and of course, a triumphant entry into the Test captain ranks by Pat Cummins.
There were more than a few disappointments which led to this series being so lopsided, however. The first disappointment started months ago.
England squad selection – there were two names missing when Chris Sliverwood announced his squad for this tour.
Ben Foakes is among the best glovemen in world cricket and a pretty useful bat. He’d have taken the majority of chances Buttler missed and would have likely valued his wicket more when batting.
Matt Parkinson is a leggie in the Shane Warne mould who can give the ball a serious rip. He’d have been a handful in both Adelaide and Sydney.
No Jofra Archer – England knew a while ago they were going to be without a guy who could have had a huge impact on this series. I’d have loved to see him play in all of the Tests, but especially in the first three. He’d have given Warner and co some serious hurry up.
Archer in action (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Haseeb Hamid – I watched him make a couple of excellent 60s in the home series against India and thought he had the technique and temperament to succeed in Australia. Even his first innings at the Gabba hinted at how good he could be.
It didn’t take long for the Australian attack to sort him out and that first Test was the last time he made double figures in the series.
Ollie Pope – I truly thought he’d make some series scores in Australia. He can play well off the back foot and doesn’t appear intimidated by any attack. He just can’t stay there long enough to build decent scores on a regular basis.
Jos Buttler – before the series started, I had doubts about England’s wicketkeepers but they persisted in the high-risk strategy of playing blokes who are batsmen first and keepers a distant second. That tactic came back to bite them badly on this tour, with Buttler proving he’s not a Test-class gloveman.
Marcus Harris – as a fellow leftie, I really wanted Harris to do well, but Khawaja’s terrific batting and Harris’ underwhelming production in the first four Tests left selectors with no choice but to leave him out of the Hobart match.
Part of my disappointment is, I have no idea what he has to do to fix what ails him and stops him from making good scores consistently at Test level.
Steve Smith – I hate seeing elite batsmen out of form and that’s where Smith is at the moment.
Sheer class got him a couple of decent scores in this series, but the sight of him trudging off the park in Hobart, after holing out to an obvious trap, was one of the saddest parts of this Ashes campaign.
Josh Hazlewood – I realise if he’d have been fit, we wouldn’t have seen the amazing debut by Scott Boland, but I was just disappointed he didn’t get back on the park.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
The pitches – we seem to have gone from one extreme to another in the space of a summer.
Last year’s series against India was played on pitches that were strongly in favour of the batsmen, bar Adelaide and this year the pendulum had swung in favour of the bowlers.
I was happy for the bowlers because Test-level bowling in Australia is as hard as it gets, but I also want to see at least four days of competitive cricket and that was a rarity in this series.
The bogans – giving players a bit of schtick when they’re out on the field is part and parcel of watching Test cricket live. Where the line has to be drawn is when they come off the field.
I have no idea what right some people think they have to give players all manner of lip when they’re leaving the field. That photo of some moron giving Bairstow and Stokes a mouthful (in the Members’) in Sydney seriously disappointed me.
No doubt there are other disappointments I’ve missed, but the one disappointment I anticipated before the first Test, failed to eventuate.
This was a series played in good spirit. I’m sure there was plenty said out in the middle that we didn’t hear, but there wasn’t the nastiness that has characterised Australian series over the past decade or so. Hopefully this is a trend that continues.
ojp44
Guest
Understand the sentiment and agree that seeing off the new ball is part of the openers remit, but surely you then need to be able to kick on ? Pretty low bar otherwise I reckon. Seems akin to saying a spinner needs to keep an end quiet and they will have done their job ( too an extent they will have but wickets are important too )
matth
Roar Guru
It was a good situation where we were struggling to fit everyone in, rather than scratching round for options
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
My disappointments. Started with the farce at the Gabba with no ball by ball no-ball review in operation. They had how long to prepare - - and by day 2 that Stokes No ball reprieve for Warner - - when we saw that (was it) every ball bowled that over was a clear no-ball. Come on CA and Gabba and whomever else is involved............that was amateur hour. re Stokes - - a shame he couldn't perform at his best. Sad to say for England - even injured he warrants a batting spot ahead of too many in their list. The Buttler did it - - awful dropped catches helped make Labuschagne look great and then flukey takes that made Harris look horrid. Funny game cricket. The selectors and openers - - -so where are we after Khawaja dual failures in Hobart as an opener - - I know some pointed to his record of 484 at 96.8 as a test opener - - well that record is not 501 at 71.5. Form? His last 5 tries as opener has returned 51 at 12.75. Who opens for the next test match?? Ironically Warner has managed just 71 from his last 5 hits full stop. Not a good form line for openers. Ironically Harris last 3 hits were 141 runs from 9 hours occupation in very difficult conditions including a match winning 76 at Melbourne (which was double the next best Aussie score and in 2 innings England managed a 50 and a 35) that defies the lament of some for a century. Learned cricket fans understand that some 100s are worth the statistical accolades and some non-century innings are far more worthy.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Will be fascinating to watch how he goes in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He's going to be tested with fast bowlers with reduced slips cordon in the first part of the Tests as well as standing up for long periods to probably a two-spinner attack in the back end of the Tests (possibly even earlier on in SL). I hope he goes well, but I think he still has a lot to prove and the pressure will be on him in those two countries. Will also be interesting to see how his batting performances are influenced by how he performs behind the stumps, including lengthy periods of concentration standing up to the slow bowlers.
Bobbo7
Guest
Harris should not have lost his spot. He did his job seeing off the new ball.
Ian_
Roar Rookie
I like the wickets being left bowler friendly, I think it makes for better games than roads.
DTM
Roar Rookie
In my younger days, I lived in North Queensland. Was hard work mowing the lawn in the humidity. Then, just as you were finishing and ready to crack a beer, you look back at your work and realise it has grown and you need to start again at the beginning!
Redcap
Roar Guru
Thanks Paul (and DTM), It was certainly a pleasant change to not be talking about the players carrying on like imbeciles (though some in the crowd did their best to lower the tone) and reading homilies from commentators with only a passing interest in cricket about they reflect badly on all of us. On the pitches, I wonder how much the weather this summer influenced the state of the pitches, or is that not a factor with drop-ins? The pitch here in Brisbane seemed to reflect the weather in the lead up - when it wasn't raining it was intolerably humid. Sometimes it was both. You'd mow the lawn and it'd grow back about five minutes later.
Gee
Roar Rookie
Carey was a bit of a let down too, After two tests he was looking good but then he went downhill.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Not sure. A hell of a lot of the balls they got out to were leg cutters that I doubt our blokes would have played much better.
astro
Roar Rookie
Going into the series, I had real concerns that with Australia playing basically no Test match cricket last year and England playing series against India and NZ, that the English would be in a much better frame of mind for Test cricket, and better prepared than the Aussies. Instead, the English looked like the team which hadn't played a Test series all year, not the other way around. I was shocked at how under-prepared they looked. Few, if any, plans to attack the Australian batters in certain ways, no aggressive field placements or bowling tactics to disrupt batters and an approach to batting which seemed more intent on 'hanging in there' than playing positive strokes or making Australia have to change how they bowled or the fields they set. The biggest disappointment for me, wasn't so much specific players but more the defeatist attitude the England team seemed to come into this series with and lack of leadership from Silverwood and Root. I'm no huge Justin Langer fan, but during this series, I was thankful the Aussies at least had a coach with passion/pride and a strong will to win.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
The stumps being cemented into place was a bit of a disappointment. :thumbdown:
Paul
Roar Guru
I'd love to see England get really brave and select an attack of Archer, Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood and Matt Parkinson. The three fast bowlers, when fit, are all over the 140kmh mark and they'd give plenty of blokes a real going over. Parkinson has to be tried, gu=iven the lack of confidence they seem to have in Leach & bess. Instead they'll stick with Woakes, Robinson, etc and wonder why they struggle in Australia.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Pretty much all true Paul. It’s interesting seeing one or two English papers now writing articles about what might have been if Archer had played in Brisbane - add in Broad and no Leach obviously making them bowl first and they were almost convinced the first Test and the whole series would have turned out differently. It might well have been closer but I did feel like responding- so of England gets their 37th ICC ranked bowler for the full series, do we also get our 3rd ranked bowler for the four Tests that he missed? Very much agree about the pitches. It was much better and more entertaining than having a lot of roads, but too far in that direction, with the amount of seam adding too much of a random element at times in terms of when the bat takes the edge.
Paul
Roar Guru
You're right about the pitches in the sense that curators were probably asked to make them a tad more sporting, but couldn't count of the fact that England's batsmen would struggle so badly. As you say, it might have been a different story if we were playing India or the Black Caps.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Thanks Paul. Perhaps from an English perspective, the biggest disappointment of the series was the leadership of Silverwood and Root. No Archer and an unfit Stokes didn't help but England shot themselves in the foot first with squad selection then team selection then tactics then application. The wickets were partly because of of the weather and partly because of the curators preparation. It made for better cricket - whilst we didn't see 500 runs scored in any innings, Australia got to 400 three times and were only bowled out four times. England failing to reach 200 in 6 of their 10 innings - that was disappointing (for them). So I think the wicket preparation would have seen a great series had we played India or NZ but England's batting was poor.