The Ashes 2019: Mark Waugh reveals what made last Aussie team to win in England so special
Eighteen years ago Australia got off to a flyer in England and never relented. There’s plenty the current crop of stars can learn from the way McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist etc ground the Poms into the dust.
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It started with a win at Edgbaston, just like this time.
Then the 2001 Ashes was all over in just 11 days.
One of the most comprehensive of Australian victories in England was also the last time the tourist’s conquered the home team there.
Under the leadership of Steve Waugh, the Aussies were enjoying a run better than golden.
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A world-record 16-Test winning streak was only broken by an infamous defeat in India in February and March of 2001.
It only steeled Waugh’s men who travelled to England a couple of months later to inflict a 4-1 Ashes defeat.
An epic Adam Gilchrist century at Birmingham, in his first Ashes innings, set the tone for a series marked as much by how bad England was as it was by Australia’s brilliance.
Waugh set the standard before the tour, when he said “if we can get on top of them early, we can open some old scars.”
It’s a mantra current skipper Tim Paine and coach Justin Langer, who played just the one Test in 2001, but made a century to make it worth it, have held on to.
The pressure is already showing as the two teams head to Lord’s this week, just like in 2001, when Australia won again. The axing of Moeen Ali, Nathan Lyon’s batting bunny, was the home team blinking first.
But beyond that mental hold a first-up victory can afford, Mark Waugh, the leading run-scorer in that 2001 series, said back then Australia was just much better.
“We just had better quality of players,” Waugh said.
“You are not going to lose too many series when you have two great bowlers, we had Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, and because of them, we were in every game. In the first three Tests especially, we just knocked them over cheaply.
“There is no great secret to winning a series. It’s having some injury luck with your key players, self- belief, working hard, all those basic things.”
The star-studded 2001 line-up went beyond the Waugh brothers, McGrath and Warne.
Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater, and eventually Langer, opened the batting.
Ricky Ponting came in at three, Damien Martyn five, with Gilchrist the keeper and an extra batting weapon.
Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee rounded out the bowling attack.
Every single one of the starting XI are either in the Hall of Fame, or will be.
There were no question marks about any spots before the series. It was an all-conquering line-up.
Only 13 players were used during the five Tests. One replacement was Simon Katich coming in for an injured Steve Waugh for the fourth Test.
Then Slater was dropped for Langer in the last match at Lord’s, after being one of the few not to perform. Langer promptly made an unbeaten century in his only innings, retiring hurt.
“When you are playing well you don’t really need to change the team unless there’s injuries,” Waugh said.
“That’s a good sign you are performing well too. England were the opposite, they went through a stack of players (19).
“That stability is crucial, when you are all playing together and working together and trusting each other, that definitely helps.”
England rolled out nine different batsmen, nine different bowlers too. They had no answers.
“I thought it was more than that,” Waugh quipped, having lost track of just who tried to fight for the home team.
On contrast to that, only six Aussies got a bowl for the entire series, and two of them, Mark Waugh and Ponting, contributed just seven overs.
Warne and McGrath took 63 wickets between them. Six of the Aussie batsmen made hundreds, too.
Both the Waugh’s made a couple, including Steve limping to an epic 157 not out at The Oval, playing with a torn calf muscle.
It smacked of the mental toughness that Australian side had by the truckload.
But there was brilliance too, rare brilliant from one-in-a-generation players like Adam Gilchrist.
He smashed 152 in the first Test at Edgbaston, his Ashes debut. Australia won by an innings and 118 runs, inside four days.
The early finish allowed the Aussies to travel to Wimbledon to watch Pat Rafter lose an epic final to Goran Ivanisevic.
It was that time they were their baggy green caps on centre court. Well some of them did. Warne didn’t, and has since revealed he was “embarrassed” his teammates did.
But there was no sense of disharmony among the team at the time. It was just the opposite.
“It’s always a better tour when you are winning, on and off the field. It goes hand in hand, “Waugh said.
“When you are winning, everyone is great mates and you tend to enjoy yourself a bit more. England is good too, you are on the bus travelling around, not spending time in airports. There’s always a card game, lots of chat. There are lots of things to do. It’s a bit like home.
“You relax a bit more, play with more freedom.”
That freedom flowed in to confidence which flowed in to utter domination of an England side which was besieged by home town pressure.
The first two Tests both only went for four days, the third at Trent Bridge, lasted just three.
It was an era before social media, which allowed the Aussies to exist on their own, too.
“At the time it was the one series that had the most attention in the newspapers and especially in England, there are so many papers, so there was always a story floating around,” Waugh said.
“But it was different, there was no social media pressure. You’d read the newspapers because they were there in front of you, but I didn’t see it as a major problem. I don’t think players were too worried about what the media wrote.
“We just got on and played, kept it simple.”
An 18-year Ashes drought in England since then, suggests maybe it’s not that simple.
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But Waugh said history meant nothing in the Ashes.
“We didn’t worry about other series before that, you just have to be in the moment,” he said.
“It’s important to start off well. We won by an innings at Edgbaston, and then we won easily at Lords.
“We had England on the back foot from the get-go. It’s only five Tests, you don’t want to be playing from behind.
“It’s important to get some sort of psychological advantage early on. That’s a big thing.
A win at Edgbaston in to a second Test at Lord’s – sound familiar.
Victory number two is at Australia’s mercy and history says that usually means good things.
Originally published as The Ashes 2019: Mark Waugh reveals what made last Aussie team to win in England so special
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