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Opinion
The first Ashes Test is still more than two months away but Ben Stokes talking about fast, flat wickets this week is an early warning shot to Australia that there will be plenty of mind games played out before a ball is even bowled.
Stokes revealed not much of a revelation at all by telling former England captain Nasser Hussain in a Sky Sports they had told the curators at the five venues they want wickets that suit their high-tempo style with bat and ball.
Pitches that are quicker than the usual seaming English ones and flatter to encourage faster scoring rates will undoubtedly suit the Bazball mantra which has revived the corpse of the team which Australia obliterated 4-0 just 15 months ago.
A 10-2 record under Stokes’ captaincy and coach Brendon McCullum means England have been the most successful team on the planet over the past 12 months but will be on the outside looking in when The Oval hosts Australia and India in the final of the World Test Championship the week before the Ashes.
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Stokes’ comments about the likelihood of faster surfaces at Edgbaston, Lord’s, Headingley, Old Trafford and The Oval should be music to the ears of Australian Test captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
No matter what voodoo the curators do to the wickets, they will never get the English soil to behave like the epitome of fast, flat wickets in the WACA Ground but the more they resemble a pitch like the Gabba, the better it is for Australia.
“We’ve been very clear with the ground staff around England about what type of wickets we want and they’ve been very responsive to us, which is good,” Stokes said.
“We want fast, flat wickets. We want to go out there and score quickly. I’m smiling because I’m looking forward to it.
“There’s no point changing just because we’re coming into an Ashes series. Every player knows the Ashes is where everything ramps up a bit – pressure, exposure, all kinds of stuff – but we’ll just keep sticking to what we do.
“Hold me to it. Every game I play this summer will be to produce a result.
“I’m not going to change anything just because it’s the Ashes. I’m not going to change for anything or any situation, because then I’m not being true to myself and what I’ve done over the last year.”
English pitches have not been a happy hunting ground for Australia since Steve Waugh led the tourists to a 4-0 Ashes cakewalk in 2001.
In the 25 matches since that last win by the Australians, they have won just six, drawn seven and suffered 12 defeats with their best series result the 2-2 draw under Tim Paine four years ago to retain the Ashes urn.
A change in pitch scenery will suit them just as much as it does England’s Bazballers.
It could even help veteran opener David Warner find his long-lost form if the selectors persist with him at the top of the order.
The green tinge of English pitches is kryptonite to the left-hander – he averages 26.04 from 13 century-less Tests on Ashes tours.
On the faster, flatter wickets of Australia and South Africa, he has hit 22 of his 25 Test centuries at an average of 58.99.
If conditions like those that he thrives on at home and in South Africa don’t jolt him into form, then nothing will.
Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Cameron Green, they would all prefer English wickets with more pace than less. Smith is a master of all conditions while the other four have limited success or Test experience in England or none whatsoever when it comes to Green.
Jofra Archer celebrates dismissing Usman Khawaja. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Stokes is banking on his express pace duo of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer being fit and firing to negate Australia’s star-studded batting unit, along with the rejuvenated trio of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson.
England plan to rotate them throughout the series to give the Aussie batters no let-up.
“Having the option of someone who can bowl above 90m/h (145km/h) is something any captain wants,” Stokes said. “Test matches can be hard and gruelling on bodies and who knows what type of conditions we might be up against game to game?
“We might feel like high-end pace is something we want throughout the series, we might feel like it’s not what we need in every game. But having options is something I want.”
And he said a mixture of gym work and cortisone injections have him confident he can fulfil the role of the fourth seamer after a knee injury hobbled him at the end of the drawn two-Test tour of New Zealand in February.
The quicker wickets should also be a big benefit to Australia’s main pace quartet of Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.
Starc and Hazlewood have been victims in the past of Australian selectors overthinking their line-up.
Hazlewood has 36 wickets from just eight matches in England at 23.58 while Cummins (29 wickets from five Tests at 19.62) was a constant threat in his only previous Ashes tour in 2019.
(Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Starc has a good but not great record of 33 wickets at 31.27 in the UK so Boland could be preferred to him if his early outings are lacking penetration.
With the surname of Stokes, the English captain is a headline writer’s dream, particularly for an Ashes series where he is going to be firing back at the Australians on and off the field.
There are still nine weeks until the first Test gets underway in Birmingham and the verbal sparks will be flying from both sides in most days of those 63.
After the pitiful England side left Australia’s shores last January with their tails between their legs last January, it’s been a major overhaul to not only rebuild the team to be competitive but be at a point where they have a strong chance of regaining the urn.
Conjecture about the pitches will be just one of many interweaving narratives that will generate debate in the interim but England need to be careful they’re not playing into Australia’s hands by making them too much to their liking.