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Opinion
If you believed half the stuff that’s been coming out of England the past few days you’d swear Australia were winless on this Ashes tour instead of 2-1 up.
Heading into Thursday’s final Test at The Oval, the Aussies have a chance to silence the critics once and for all by winning to take out this series, not just retain the famous little urn.
England’s PR machine has been in overdrive. All the chat since Manchester on the weekend has been about how they’ve been unlucky and that they think they’re the better team so winning 3-1 after all that would be extra sweeter for the Aussies.
There hasn’t been any pressure from the local media on Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes for some of the decisions they’ve taken along the way that they didn’t get right.
It’d make it a very dominant English summer for Australia to win the World Test Championship final and then beat the Poms 3-1.
And with all the kerfuffle after the fourth Test, that talk will galvanise the Aussie team and could backfire big time on England.
Australia should be able to win if they follow the template from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in India.
They had a couple of Tests over there when they were not at their best, culminating in one really bad session in the second match but then bounced back to win the next game.
Australia can do that again if they adjust a few of their tactics and tinker with their line-up.
We’re the world Test champions so let’s play like that. We’ve done it before and I think they can show their best again at The Oval.
Pat Cummins has been in the crosshairs over his captaincy as well. Skippers do have a shelf life but he should keep going as long at least until the end of the next World Test Championship cycle.
He’d be keen to defend that trophy that the Aussies won last month at this week’s venue against India.
Pat Cummins bowls as Ben Stokes watches on. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
That’d give Australia a couple of years too to line up the next captain, whoever stands out from the pack.
England are talking about building a legacy themselves and they need to win more often in this two-year WTC cycle and it’d be great to have a rematch with them in 2025 in the final at Lord’s.
For the Australian team selection wise, it looks like everyone is fit so I’d be taking in the same three quicks but bringing Todd Murphy as a spinning option for Cameron Green.
With the nine-day break between the third and fourth matches and the last two days at Old Trafford being washed out, the seamers have only had one innings to bowl in the past fortnight so fatigue shouldn’t be an issue.
The finish line is in sight and they’ve got the chance to put their feet up for a lengthy spell after this match. Once you know the end of a series is only a few days away, it’s easier to get up for that last push.
Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have played a lot of cricket in England with Steve Smith, David Warner and Usman Khawaja. This is their last chance to win a series over there so that will provide more than enough motivation.
With their tactics, it’s all about match-ups for the Australian bowlers to stop England from getting on the front foot.
Hazlewood troubles Ben Duckett and if Zak Crawley is getting forward and playing the ball to the leg-side boundary, I’d be bringing Mitchell Marsh in early while the ball is still new.
He got him twice at Leeds with outswing bowling in a slightly wider corridor – get the ball out of his hitting zone and moving away and it should pay dividends.
Moeen Ali batted beautifully for his half-century last week but history tells us that he doesn’t have the consistency to be a top-order batter at Test level.
Even though Crawley nearly got a double ton at Manchester, I think Joe Root is the danger. He batted as well as I’d seen from him for a long time and he was desperately unlucky not to go onto three figures with a grubber getting under his defences.
The Aussie bowlers have overdone it with the short ball, especially to the tail, but I think they should dig it in short more at Harry Brook. He’s looked uncomfortable when he’s faced bouncers.
If Murphy’s given a chance by Cummins to settle into a spell he can be effective against Stokes because we know he doesn’t like facing off-spinners. I like that match-up early on when Stokes comes out to bat.
It would have been a helluva different story in the second Test when he whacked 155 if Nathan Lyon had been out in the middle instead of in the pavilion with his torn calf.
I’m not sure Jimmy Anderson is still in their best bowling attack. A lot will depend on whether Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are fit but if they’re all good to go, Ollie Robinson or Josh Tongue have had greater impact this series.
That could be a sad end for Anderson although Stokes seems pretty loyal to his lieutenants so he might get one last reprieve even though he’s been below par.