Both England and Australia have said that they would adhere to their respective strategic methods for the remainder of the Ashes series, which bodes well for another exciting matchup in the second test that will be held at Lord’s commencing today.
With a nail-biting two-wicket victory in the first Test match at Edgbaston last week, Australia took a commanding 1-0 lead in the five-match campaign. Australia is competing for its first Ashes series victory in England in the last 22 years.
When England had their arch-rivals eight down and needed 54 more runs to win, they were on the verge of triumph. However, an unbroken partnership between Australia skipper Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon was able to bring England’s chances of winning back into question.
The poor fielding by England, which resulted in the loss of multiple scoring opportunities, did not assist their situation.
Despite the fact that this was just their third loss in 14 Tests since captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum joined forces a year ago, the focus quickly shifted to their aggressive “Bazball” strategy.
It was alleged by a number of ex-England internationals, including Geoffrey Boycott, that Stokes’ team had been too aggressive in Birmingham, most notably in declaring on the first day of the match when they were 393-8.
After all, it was while playing in such a traditional way that England won only one out of 17 Tests before Stokes replaced Joe Root as red-ball captain. There is no assurance that a more conventional strategy would have led to better success. Australia, on the other hand, is the current winner of the World Test Championship.
It may grate on your nerves to hear England seamer Ollie Robinson claim that Australia would need to “change their approach to keep up with how we’re going to play” after his team lost a test that they were playing in.
But as Mike Brearley, a former England captain, famously observed, “you cannot expect a tortoise to jump like a gazelle,” and it may be asking too much of the present team to depart much from a strategy that has worked them well in the past. Brearley’s quote comes from the book “You Can’t Expect a Tortoise to Jump Like a Gazelle.”
Ollie Pope, who is Stokes’s deputy captain, said that the team’s tactics consisted of more than what was first visible to the naked eye.
“I know that sometimes it can look like it’s just moments of madness, but all of the decisions that are made are well thought out with a vision of the end goal,” Pope stressed at Lord’s on Tuesday. “I know that sometimes it can look like there’s just moments of madness.”
It may be said that England’s squad selection is their most pressing problem.
It should come as no surprise that off-spinner Mooen Ali, who was lured out of red-ball retirement at Edgbaston, sustained a finger injury on a bowling hand that was not used to bowling for extended periods of time.
The leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed, who is just a teenager, has been called up by England as cover. They also have the option of relying on Root’s part-time off-spin as a means of reintroducing express speedy Mark Wood into the lineup.
Mitchell Starc, a left-arm fast, was dropped for Australia at Edgbaston, where England went after Scott Boland, a typically miserly seamer, gave runs at a pace of 5.65 runs per over. Australia now has to decide whether or not to return Mitchell Starc after the left-arm quick was dropped.
“Just because they (England) are scoring at a higher rate or trying to score at a higher rate doesn’t mean you go to one-day cricket,” Starc said after the victory, which was based on Australia opener Usman Khawaja’s laborious hundred. “One-day cricket” refers to a form of cricket played over the course of a single day.
“There are plenty of ways to skin a cat, as we saw last week in the way that they approached it in comparison to the way that we did,” you may say. “We did it this way.”
At Edgbaston, Australia’s key batters Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith scored a combined total of just 35 runs, so the team will be looking for them to go back to their old selves.
The team that currently holds the Ashes has no reservations about using Lyon, even though the off-spinner is about to play in his 100th straight Test following a haul of eight wickets that brought him within five wickets of reaching 500 at this level.
An Ashes series victory in England is still highly desirable for Australia, particularly since that a number of their players came so close to achieving it during the 2019 competition, which finished in a 2-2 tie.
Starc was fully aware of what was at risk, despite the fact that he was unsure as to whether or not he would play at Lord’s only two days after his wife, Alyssa Healy, guided Australia to victory in the lone Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.
“It is a chance to go 2-0 up,” the 33-year-old competitor stated. “The fact that we have this chance is not lost on any of us.
“Coming off the back of ’19, in which we retained the Ashes but fell short of winning, the carrot is certainly there,” said one player. “For some of us, this will be our fourth trip here.”