Australian coach Justin Langer and vice-captain Steve Smith during a practice session this week.Credit:Getty Images
That’s not a winning feeling in their arms and legs, it’s pins and needles. The T20 World Cup is irrelevant. The guy who won them that tournament isn’t even in Brisbane.
So, it’s one dodgy formline versus none at all. Australia’s Pat Cummins has no exposed form as captain, England headliner Ben Stokes has played no cricket at all since July and now Jimmy Anderson is taking what England bizarrely says is a bye in the first round. The bottom line is that there’s no bottom line.
Even the by-play’s been weird. Last time, Nathan Lyon said Australia was going to end England careers. This time, Shane Warne is busy ending Lyon’s career, just as soon as he’s knocked off Mitch Starc. But the most imaginative seizure of the high moral ground I’ve read was a website piece suggesting that England’s pre-series moral crisis has more gravitas than Australia’s. Well, I guess it was a sifting of English miscreants that got Australia going in the first place.
Perhaps Warne is right. Test cricket has been suspended for Australia, but the march of time hasn’t. More than half the team is 30-plus. I’d liked to have seen Jhye Richardson play in Brisbane. Then again, he’ll get his chance. One certainty about this low-prep, high-intensity series is that there will be injuries. There are already.
For media also, this will be an Ashes like no other. Most will cover the first Test remotely, requiring even greater reaches of the imagination than usual. We’re back to the 1930s broadcasts, tapping pencils on desktops to simulate ball-striking. It’s just that they’re now laptops.
It’s chaotic. It’s disorienting. Instead of an orderly escalation of hostilities, there’s been a lot of important-looking rushing around. But it might not be a bad thing. Some of the best Ashes series have grown out of humble precedes. When nothing is certain, everything is a surprise. Hence, the frisson now.
What it’s all about: Australia celebrate retaining the Ashes in England in 2019.Credit:Getty Images
The cricket questions will resolve themselves. Contemplations on Australia’s fast bowler captain have been over-complicated. The wellspring of Australia’s dominance spanning the turn of the century was the NSW team led by Geoff Lawson, a fast bowler.
England are, if not cocky, bullish. As much can be told by their ready agreement to play two day-night Tests if necessary, and by their cotton-woolling of Anderson until the second Test. In Ashes past, it would all have been over by then.
So despite all – because of all – we’re agog. In lieu of a smooth preparation, both teams and all fans are depending that it will be all right on the night. And it will because that much about an Anglo-Australia rubber is assured. Per the recently late Woodcock 50 years ago, nothing on the field of play compares with a rout of an Ashes opponent. That never changes.
Dusting off the Ashes: it’s time to play
Source: Philippines Alive
