Australian’s dominant century in the World Test Championship final against India strikes an ominous note before the AshesFrom time to time around the Oval press box, little English-accented groans of annoyance burbled through the quiet. “Oh God. Here we go again.” Steve Smith was the cause, across the first two days of the World Test Championship final. Through the tinted windows placed just behind the bowler’s arm at the Vauxhall End was the perfect view of him, ball after ball: setting up outside leg stump, stepping across, nudging off his pads for a run on his way to 121.For British scribes who covered their last home Ashes in 2019, it was simply Smith picking up where he left off. They...
When Travis Head arrived at the Oval crease, his side were in a precarious position – now they will enter day two well in chargeTest it out quietly to yourself, because it is not yet a fully formed idea. One to be rolled over the tongue to see how it goes before it is released. But maybe, at least at this moment, Travis Head is Australia’s most important Test batter.This is not an idea born of his run-a-ball century in the World Test Championship final, when he took Australia from precarity to primacy against India at the Oval. It was when that century was still just a threat, on 28 from 18 balls shortly after Marnus Labuschagne had been clean...
England will need the action hero to bowl those fiery spells, especially now Australia have a big-hitter of their ownBefore the unbeaten 135, Ben Stokes’s Headingley rescue-act in 2019 began with the ball. It remains the somewhat forgotten preamble, the EP of promise before the first album that went platinum.Stokes was skilful in his 24.2-over spell in Australia’s second innings, but it was his ferocity that stood out, his unwillingness to step aside as an already significant lead grew into what should have been a match-winning one. The final figures were three for 56, tidy but hardly reflective of what he had produced. Marnus Labuschagne, who took the brunt of it, said later that it was one of the best...
Test cricket will lose a part of itself when England’s elder statesman retires and, while it will survive, it will be painful“Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head.” A few weeks ago English cricket was thrown into a medium-sized spasm by the news that Jimmy Anderson had sustained a groin injury playing for Lancashire against Somerset. On one level it felt faintly ridiculous that England’s Ashes chances should rise or fall on the fitness of a man old enough to have bowled at Derek Randall. But the predominant sensation was really a kind of paralysing fear: the sort that grips you when you hear that an elderly relative has fallen over at home. Everyone knows the...
The bowler’s pace and style will be sorely missed, as will the highly anticipated rematch with Steve Smith and companyIf you started following cricket recently, you might wonder why the fuss about Jofra Archer missing this year’s Ashes. A player with 13 Tests for England, the last well over two years ago, and 42 wickets averaging 31. Those who watched four years ago will know why Archer is imprinted on an Australian cricket consciousness as firmly as on England’s. His earlier work in Australia’s domestic T20 league had already introduced an incredible athlete in the field and a force with the ball. Then he showed up in the second Ashes match of 2019 in place of the injured James Anderson.Weeks...