The Ashes 2021-22: Follow the latest news and updates ahead of the Test series
Among the members of England’s Ashes squad to touch down on Saturday was an undercover X-factor to be planted in the BBL. Will Joe Root unleash his secret weapon?
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England’s Ashes squad arrived in Australia on Saturday to a message from their undercover X-factor that he’s ready to be unleashed on Australia.
Young express fast bowler Saqib Mahmood was a controversial omission from the original touring party, but will be planted in Australia for the entire summer anyway as a secret weapon England can call upon at any time.
Mahmood touched down in Brisbane alongside the squad, as part of the England Lions team, and after a couple of tour matches against the Test team, he will then hide in plain sight at the Sydney Thunder for the BBL - just in case his phone rings from Joe Root.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was stunned Mahmood wasn’t picked for the Ashes as a 145km/h enforcer in conditions where medium pace generally doesn’t cut the mustard.
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ASHES FORM TRACKER: FOLLOW THE FORM OF AUSSIE TEST HOPEFULS
With no Jofra Archer, England is lacking a genuine speed demon in their attacking arsenal to shake things up, but Mahmood has made it clear he’ll be ready to go at a moment’s notice if reinforcements are needed.
“I’m not part of that Ashes squad at the moment but you never know what will happen at the end of the Lions series, and if I’m still not part of it then it’ll be good to be in the country if they do decide or if there are injuries or anything,” Mahmood told News Corp.
“There’s a lot of good things happening around being in Australia at that time.
“My focus will be on the Big Bash, but what Sydney Thunder will get is a guy who is aware that he could potentially get a call-up so I will try and be on top of my game. I’m desperate to do well.”
Mahmood will be coached at the Thunder by former England boss Trevor Bayliss, which means the lines of communication will be open directly for the now England coach Chris Silverwood if he’s after a scouting report.
The @ThunderBBL have a new pace ace âš¡ï¸
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) September 15, 2021
Englishman Saqib Mahmood is their third international signing for #BBL11pic.twitter.com/2m5k3QuK6T
There is no doubt England are keeping the door ajar for the mid-Ashes entry of an x-factor who shook up Pakistan in an ODI debut a few months ago.
“When I first found out about the Big Bash, (coach, Silverwood) obviously pushed me to go. I think he obviously wanted me out in the country as well,” said Mahmood.
“The message I’ve got is that door’s not completely shut. Obviously coming back from a side injury, I’m back up to full fitness at the moment. If you get out there, do your thing, look, you never know.
“That’s the message I’ve got which obviously adds to my desire of trying to get into that squad.
“For me with the England Lions I’ll have the mindset of leading from the front with my work ethic and my standards and hopefully then I can carry those good standards either into an Ashes squad or Big Bash with Sydney Thunder.”
Mahmood enjoyed a compelling battle with Australian No.3 Marnus Labuschagne in county cricket this year and is a confident 24-year-old primed for the contest.
Although he bowls quicker than the stalwarts England is relying on for their Ashes campaign, Stuart Broad and James Anderson, Mahmood believes his real point of difference could be laid bare at a dry pitch venue like the SCG, which hosts the fourth Test.
“My point of difference can come if we play on a dry surface and I know Sydney can be quite dry at the SCG,” said Mahmood.
“If there’s any sort of chance of reverse swing, that’s where I can come in a little bit – that’s one of my key strengths I’ve shown for Lancashire last summer.
“If you can get the ball moving laterally and reverse swinging when the ball is 50 or 60 overs old that can be a key strength of mine.”
He’s lobbed. Ben Stokes comes through customs at Brisbane airport. Fascinating summer ahead! pic.twitter.com/v7irwMKzYJ
— Robert Craddock (@craddock_cmail) November 5, 2021
Ashes arrival: England enter Aussie Covid cave
- Robert Craddock
Joe Root’s England cricket team has touched down in Brisbane motivated to turn their “Covid cave’’ into a weapon against an underprepared Australia at the Gabba.
The vivid silver lining behind the early arrival of the first wave of tourists – to be followed soon by their World T20 stars – is that they will be as acclimatised to Queensland conditions by the first Test as any England touring side has ever been.
England will base themselves at a luxurious five star resort on the Gold Coast and after three days of hard quarantine will be able to train at Metricon Stadium in preparation for the first Test at the Gabba from December 8.
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Root and gifted allrounder Ben Stokes were among the first batch of arrivals to walk through the silence of a near empty Brisbane Airport this morning.
One of the reasons Australia held a 33-year unbeaten run at the Gabba against all-comers before India ended it last summer was that sides would snatch at glory there, arriving late for the first Test of the summer and sometimes not even playing a warm-up game in Queensland.
Visiting players would often say they were still getting used to Brisbane’s humidity and early sunrises – never mind the bouncy deck – when the Test was being played.
That won’t happen with England who, for all of the challenges of the Covid world, have a full month to prepare.
England have brought two squad including the English Lions back-up squad who will play a three-day warm up match against the English Test team at Redlands from November 23-25 and a four-day game at Ian Healy Oval from November 30 to December 3.
The last English team to score a major upset Ashes series win in Australia – Mike Gatting’s 1986-87 outfit – put down some of their success to arriving early.
They went to Bundaberg, and played a one-day game at Lawes (population 328) in the Lockyer Valley as well as taking on South Australia and Western Australia before meeting Australia in the first Test.
Australia, by contrast, are challenged by the fact that their entire pace attack – Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc – and their two most experienced batsmen – Steve Smith and David Warner – are in World T20 squad and have been starved of red ball cricket since the last Test against India at the Gabba in January.
England know they must strike early. Because Tim Paine’s side retained the Ashes on the last tour of England, Australia starts the series with its nose in front.
If Australia won the first Test at the Gabba England would have to win at least two of the last four to take the urn home, a gargantuan achievement for a side which has won just six of its past 42 Tests in Australia.
LESS SWING, BUT JIMMY STILL KING OF ASHES’ DANCEFLOOR
Marnus Labuschagne has claimed cricket may never see another Jimmy Anderson but is hoping Australian conditions nullify the magic wand he waves with imperious command in England.
The two met for the first time in the recent English country season and no-one has to remind Labuschagne of the result.
“Four balls and Jimmy knicked me off … he got the early nod there,” Labuschagne said of his edge behind to a honeysweet away seamer, the perfect contrast to several earlier balls which went in the opposite direction.
It was only a county game between Glamorgan and Lancashire but the bowler made no attempt to play down the significance of it.
“It’s nice to get the first blow in,” champion swing bowler Anderson told the BBC a week later.
“It’s like when you see a girl at a club and you try to play it cool. You want her to be impressed. You start dancing to the Stone Roses while your shoes stick to the floor.”
Labuschagne was impressed all right, not in a nightclub sort of way, but enough to acknowledge the merit of a man who has become the most successful pace bowler in the game’s history doing a craft which is highly condition-sensitive.
Anderson’s effort to make his final Ashes tour seven months shy of his 40th birthday has impressed the cricket world, Labuschagne included.
“I love it. I think it’s amazing what he has done in his career. His longevity as a bowler. I don’t know whether we will ever see something like it again,” Labuschagne said.
“(I’m) very impressed with him what he has done over his career but we are excited to face him in our conditions, slightly less swing and a little less nip. It’s going to be very exciting.’’
Less swing, less nip.
They are the words which spell out the challenge for Anderson who expects to play three of the five Tests.
He may not be able to make the ball hoop round corners like he does in England but Australia will be on red alert for him in Adelaide where he took 5-43 in the second innings to make Australia pulses quicken on the last tour.
There is a widely-held theory that Anderson is a home track hero who loses his claws abroad but the truth is that while being exceptional under home conditions he has also been nothing worse than serviceable in most nations and downright superb in some.
He has pocketed a barely believable 402 wickets at 24 at home and while his worst average per wicket abroad is in Australia (60 wickets at 35 from 18 Tests) it is far from abysmal.
His sublime skills have carried him to dignified returns in India (34 at 29), Sri Lanka (18 at 33) and he has cut through the searing heat and humidity of the United Arab Emirates for an exceptional 22 wickets at 20.
Labuschagne will continue to try and press his claims to break into the Australia T20 team but there is little doubt his Ashes prospects are in better shape after a month of Sheffield Shield cricket rather than being involved in the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Ex-Aussie guru becomes England’s Ashes secret weapon
The Australian mastermind behind England’s 2005 Ashes triumph is set to jump back over the fence in a potentially decisive coup by the Old Enemy.
Troy Cooley was the bowling mentor who got the England attack to bond like few ever have before in that famous tide-turning series, prompting Cricket Australia to immediately sign him back, with the popular Tasmanian the Aussie bowling coach as recently as the 2019 Ashes.
However, Cooley was made redundant by Cricket Australia in August after 15 years of service as part of Covid cutbacks to junior pathways cricket.
News Corp understands England has immediately seized on the opportunity and are set to bring him back into the fold in the lead-up to the first Test at the Gabba, with the squad due to arrive in Brisbane on Saturday.
It’s understood contracts have not yet been signed but the plan is for Cooley to help rally the self-belief of an England attack that has been hammered on its last two tours of Australia.
Cooley brings with him an intimate knowledge of Australia’s players and conditions and is very sensitive to the nuances of the Pat Cummins-led attack after so many years working with them.
For England in the 2005 Ashes, Cooley was credited as a mentor and almost an amateur psychologist as much as a coach, where he united the likes of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff and made them believe.
If he can do the same for an ageing attack led by James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood it will be as important as any insight he has on conditions and the Kookaburra ball, because this Ashes tour for England will be all about keeping the spirit of the bowlers up in steam-bath conditions where it’s inevitable they’ll be put under pressure.
Cooley became a friend and trusted confidant for occasionally emotionally fragile talents like Harmison and Jones and somehow extracted the best out of them – with self-belief against such a dominant Australian side in 2005 as important as the reverse swing they mastered with the ball.
His work with the England fast bowlers created a theme change in Ashes cricket, with times late in the series when Australian players at Test morning training sessions were told by their coach John Buchanan to keep their eyes to the front and stop watching what England was doing.
Cooley has largely been a behind the scenes figure in Australia’s pathway systems, but did assume the role of Australian caretaker coach on the Michael Clarke-led 2011 Test tour of South Africa, following the departure of Tim Neilsen and prior to the appointment of Mickey Arthur.
On the 2019 Ashes where he served as bowling coach, Australia retained the urn on English soil for the first time in two decades.
Cooley has set up his own coaching academy since departing Cricket Australia, and one of his primary tasks when the England team land will be trying to help superstar Ben Stokes lift his bowling loads.
Stokes has not played a Test match since March and last played an ODI in July before taking a few months off to deal with a badly broken finger and to focus on his mental health.
The all-rounder’s inclusion is a massive boost for England’s hopes of an Ashes upset, but captain Joe Root has warned Stokes’ is a long way from full capacity as far as bowling is concerned.
Stokes’ influence with the ball as the fourth seamer in the England attack could make or break the series.
“He’s a massive asset. In many respects you’re talking about his performances on the field and especially what he’s done against Australia in the recent past,” Root said.
“But also the way that he plays his cricket. You look at where we’re going, we’re going to have periods of play where it’s going to be very challenging to have to send people to stick their hand up and I suppose grab the game.
“He’s someone that will always do that. He will lead from the front from that perspective. He’s a brilliant leader within the dressing room and people follow him.”
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Originally published as The Ashes 2021-22: Follow the latest news and updates ahead of the Test series
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