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Opinion
At the start of this year, all seemed well for the Australian men’s cricket team.
After winning the T20 World Cup last November and falling just shy of vanquishing England in an Ashes whitewash due to one measly wicket in a rain-affected Test, the horizon looked bright.
The old enemy were a mess. England’s coach (Chris Silverwood), managing director (Ashley Giles) and captain (Joe Root) walked the plank or jumped before they were pushed.
It looked like they had three or four Test quality players and a lot of imposters masquerading in the five-day format.
Even though they’d be playing next year’s contest on home soil – where they haven’t lost a series to Australia since 2001, it seemed borderline inconceivable that they could rebuild from the smouldering ruins of the Ashes.
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But here we are less than 12 months later with England having rebuilt their Test team to win six of their past seven matches (3-0 over New Zealand, the held-over 2021 clash with India and a 2-1 triumph over South Africa) and still soaking up the champagne and adulation after beating Pakistan in Melbourne to add the T20 World Cup to the ODI trophy already in the ECB cabinet.
(Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
And the Australians are facing questions about their meek surrender of their T20 crown, whether Pat Cummins is the right choice to take over as white-ball skipper, who should lead the T20 team with Aaron Finch’s form falling off a cliff and whether Andrew McDonald has swung the team’s coaching style too far back to the friendly end of the spectrum following complaints from players about Justin Langer being too intense.
It’s way too early to be worrying about inking in Australia’s possible XI for the Ashes series opener at Edgbaston on June 16. Selectors should be using pencil for all but three or four names.
There’s two matches against the West Indies and three more at home against South Africa before four Tests in a five-week stretch in India in February.
Australia are atop the World Test Championship standings after 10 matches in the biannual cycle and if they negotiate the next three series without too much trouble, should be at The Oval prior to the Ashes playing off for that trophy.
So with nine, possibly 10, Tests before the Ashes it’s unlikely to be the same line-up that takes on the Windies at Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 30.
Sam Curran of England celebrates after taking the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan of Pakistan during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
David Warner has indicated the Ashes could be his swansong in the baggy green cap.
“Test cricket will probably be the first one to fall off,” Warner said on Triple M’s Deadset Legends. “Because that’s how it will pan out. The T20 World Cup is in 2024, (one-day) World Cup next year.
“Potentially it could be my last 12 months in Test cricket. But I love the white-ball game; it’s amazing.”
Warner wants to play a part in Australia regaining the 50-over World Cup in India next October before doing likewise for the T20 version the following year when the US and West Indies are joint hosts. Not a bad way to end your international career if his white-ball form holds true.
But in the Test arena, his record in England is the biggest blotch on his career and he needs to be taking in strong lead-up form to ensure he’s the automatic selection he’s been for more than a decade.
(Photo by Getty Images)
None of his 24 Test hundreds have been brought up on the well-grassed English soil with only seven half-centuries from 25 innings.
In the 13 Tests he has played in England, he has just 651 runs at 26.04. If you remove those mediocre numbers from his overall record, Warner has 7166 runs at 50.11 in the other 83 Tests of his career.
Stuart Broad is back in the English selectors’ good graces and will be waiting for him next year after reducing Warner to 95 runs at 9.5 in the 2019 series when Australia retained the urn on the back of Steve Smith’s herculean performances with the bat.
And in the past 12 Tests matches since his most recent ton against New Zealand in Sydney at the start of 2020, Warner has produced 573 runs at 28.65.
Warner’s opening partner Usman Khawaja also needs to show his impressive returns since his recall for the new year Test in Sydney (888 runs at 51.89 in seven Tests, including four tons) are not just a fleeting late-career renaissance for the soon-to-be 36-year-old.
His Kryptonite has also been the English conditions – 236 runs at 19.66 in 12 trips to the crease with a highest score of 54 means that like Warner, his career Test average of 47.18 would be over the magical 50 benchmark if his Ashes tour stats were stricken from the record.
The third player who needs to produce consistently with the bat during the home summer and in India is Travis Head.
While he looked to have cemented a spot at No.5 in the order with two centuries on the way to winning the Compton-Miller Medal in the Ashes, he struggled in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with a combined 91 runs from five Tests at 15.17.
Travis Head celebrates his century during day one of the fifth Test. (Photo by Matt Roberts – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Alex Carey looks to have all but established himself as Australia’s long-term keeper while the four bowlers – Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and spinner Nathan Lyon – have the inside running to be the Ashes attack but as we’ve seen in the T20 arena, the big three quicks are no longer guaranteed selections if they don’t perform.
Hazlewood has only played two of the past 10 Tests due to a side strain in the Ashes and unhelpful pitches negating the need for a third seamer on the Asian tours.
Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson are at the ready to jump in whenever there’s an opening so Australia certainly has quality pace options to cover the mainstay trio.
At the very least it looks like Australian cricket fans now know they can’t expect their team to simply turn up next year in England expecting to waltz through the series like they did on home pitches last summer.