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Opinion
If you were a heavyweight boxer, champion of the world, who had beaten all comers with a sound defence and an orthodox attacking strategy, it would be foolish to change your tactics.
Let’s say you pounded an opponent into submission 18 months ago who then went away and started winning because they threw haymakers at every possible opportunity, would you then start doing the same as them?
Of course you wouldn’t.
So it was foolish for anyone to think the Australian cricket team, fresh off accounting for India in the World Test Championship final, would all of a sudden starting Bazballing back at England in the Ashes.
Despite England having the advantage of batting first and bowling fourth on the overcooked Edgbaston wicket, their high-risk, high-reward style was countered by Australia’s relentless commitment to the fundamentals of Test cricket.
Pat Cummins celebrates after taking the wicket of Ben Stokes at Edgbaston. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The old “styles make fights” boxing analogy is a trope is trotted out by sports reporters to explain that contrasting approaches can make for a thrilling contest, which indeed the first Test was over each of the five days as both teams fought to gain the ascendancy.
England medium-pacer (whose style cannot be described any other way) Ollie Robinson has hardly covered himself in glory with both his on-field exploits and off-field comments recently.
And he doubled down on the weekend by claiming he was surprised Australia didn’t try to fight fire with fire as the England batters blazed away with what frequently turned out to be reckless abandon apart from Joe Root’s masterful first-innings ton.
If you want to give him much more credit than the mountain of doubt, you could possibly claim that Robinson was cleverly trying to goad Australia, preying on their ego to put them off their game in the hope that they’d start questioning their tactics for the Lord’s Test when it gets underway on Wednesday.
Or it’s a case of the much more likely scenario that he is all bluff and bluster who speaks before he acts.
In the column that was published under his name in Wisden (it would be a stretch to say that he wrote it), he stated that England were “surprised by how defensive Australia were and how unwilling they were to go toe-to-toe with us”.
England’s Ollie Robinson celebrates after taking the wicket of Australia’s Usman Khawaja. (Photo by David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)
Pat Cummins, an actual fast bowler, quickly recgonised the placid batting conditions on day one and adjusted his field accordingly.
To continue the boxing comparisons, he saw a lower-ranked opponent swinging wildly in the hope that the tactic came off and was never going to walk into that trap leading with his chin.
Robinson added that “a pitch with a bit more movement would benefit us hugely” so take that as read that Ben Stokes has conveyed the message to the Lord’s curator that their Edgbaston comrades took the flat pitch request too far to the nth degree so the second Test surface will have a bit more zing in it.
It can’t have less.
Robinson drew the most derision when he then claimed coach Brendon McCullum told them “after the game, ‘it feels like we’ve won, lads. We’ve entertained the world, and we’ve put the Aussies on the back foot’.”
This was worse than Stuart Broad’s “void series” effort when asked about England’s last tour of Australia. Everyone knows Broad’s reputation for being the agent provocateur with his barbs in the media.
Robinson’s reputation is much less polished and getting grubbier by the day.
This is the same player who two years ago apologised after racist and sexist social media posts were uncovered from his youth.
For someone who was banned and fined for, in part, writing disparaging comments about Muslims, it was not the wisest move to be going after the only Australian player with that background in the first Test.
Sledging opener Usman Khawaja with a foul-mouthed spray after getting him out following a lengthy century could be put down to the old “heat of the moment” frustration that comes with being a seamer trying to extract movement from a lifeless pitch.
Robinson was even entitled to not necessarily apologise for his behaviour after play in the media conference and claim that it was the kind of ungentlemanly conduct that previous iterations of the Australian team had been doing for years.
But he then had another go at Khawaja in the second innings during a drinks break and had to be told to calm down by senior pro James Anderson, who luckily for Robinson, had the sense to step in to stop him making a total fool of himself.
Khawaja had already told him “be careful what you say” after Robinson sledged him for not trying to drive the last ball before the break.
Usman Khawaja of Australia celebrates his century. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
And when you’ve taken a potshot at the Australian tailenders who you then can’t get out to win the game, you can expect an almighty serve from the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, who duly ripped into Robinson.
That generation doesn’t always speak highly of the current side but there’s nothing that unites Australian cricketers past and present like the stereotypical “whingeing Pom”.
He’s lucky they’re long retired because they would relished tucking into his moderate offerings from 22 yards away.
“What’s Ashes cricket without a little bit of comments from past players?” Stokes said at his pre-match media conference. “It’s not the only time where emotions of pro sport have come out in that form.
“Ollie Robinson is the sixth best bowler in the world, he is averaging 21 with the ball. That’s all I need to say on that.
“Ollie Robinson doesn’t let stuff like that affect him. He has been a quality performer every time he has walked on the field for England. His performances have proven that.
“I won’t be having a word with him to rein it in, because you don’t want to take something out of a player that gets the best out of them. He loves the competition. It is professional sport. It’s the Ashes. There was a moment where we needed a desperate breakthrough (of Khawaja), and he was the one to get that.”
As there was in the lead-up to the series opener, there’s been plenty of talk from the rival corners.
England are a puncher’s chance of fighting their way back into the Ashes despite going down in the first round.
Mike Tyson was 37-0 before he was knocked out by James “Buster” Douglas in 1990 in one of the greatest upsets in sporting history.
Mike Tyson. (Photo by Sean Dempsey – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
But Test cricket is a team sport where more than one heavy blow is needed to bring down a champion.
Whenever the English side looked to have the advantage over the Aussies in Birmingham, their impetuosity got the better of them.
It was not just Stokes’ hasty day-one declaration but also several batters throwing their wicket away to cavalier shots, including Joe Root in the second innings when he could have knocked their opponents to the canvas if he had kicked on from 46.
“I know sometimes it can look like it’s just moments of madness but all the decisions that are made are well thought out with a vision of the end goal,” Pope said. “These decisions aren’t just a rash thought. They are well thought out and spoken about by senior players in the changing room.”
Bazball is a double-edged sword – it can put an opponent on the back foot and defeat humdrum teams but when there is a clear gap in class, as there is between this depleted England line-up and an Australian team with very few weaknesses, unorthodox tactics can only take you so far.
Over 25 days and five Tests, styles are less important and it’s whoever packs the most all-round punch, who usually wins the fight.
with AAP