A victory for Australia’s love of the game

Australia have not merely won the World Test Championship. They have dominated it. Only rain prevented their winning every home Test in its two-year cycle; they split their away Tests, which is about as well as anyone does these days; they monstered their nearest rival, India, in the neutral final.

Pat Cummins’ team averaged 10 more than the bat than the ball. Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head were among the top six scorers. Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were in the top six wicket takers. Perhaps the effect is diffuse for being spread over two years, and intermingled with white ball distractions, but it’s also inarguable.

The Australians were probably not quite at their best at The Oval. Catches went down; wickets fell to no balls; extras were conceded. But there is a long peak for them to sustain in this northern summer, and in the perpetual trade-off of preparation against future endurance the Australians probably got the balance as right as you can.

India, not so much. In fact, they were far, far poorer than they should have been. Australia learned in 2019 that you abdicate first innings at The Oval at your peril; India got distracted by a few clouds.

The exclusion of Ravi Ashwin was a howler, Rohit Sharma’s admonition to play with ‘freedom’ a cop-out, the bowling plans pretty much non-existent, and altogether too much ‘all right on the night’ thinking.

Still, if you elect to play your home Tests on shit-tip pitches, be prepared to suffer the consequence on surfaces where the balance between bat and ball is more even. India looked like a team that would like to have won the World Test Championship final if they could get it on their terms, or Jay Shah could get it for them, rather than one prepared to make genuine sacrifices to do so.

Pat Cummins of Australia lifts the ICC World Test Championship mace after his side’s victory over India at The Oval Picture: Getty Images

Which Australia was. They wanted it, and badly. Inattention to over rates had cost them their chance to play in the first final; this cycle they left nothing to chance.

They fought back too. Pantsed at Nagpur and Delhi earlier this year, shuffled to Indore, deprived of Cummins by circumstances, and of David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Cameron Green by injury, relying on two junior spinners and an ersatz opening combination, they made sure of their final berth by winning the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy – in hindsight as meritorious a win as any in the cycle by anyone.

Why did they want it? Precisely because they value the format. Lots of fans out there purport to ‘love’ Test cricket. The Australian team make this love real. Stop and listen to them some time. When they talk about their Test performances, it is almost always in terms of the excitement at its particular demands, its paramount significance in determining a cricketer’s prowess.

“No doubt Test matches for us are our favourite format,” said Cummins in the aftermath of victory at The Oval. “It’s the biggest challenge I think in every way. This competition pitting up against everyone in the world, it has got to be right up there.”

In every media interaction, this is a team that speaks with one voice. Steve Smith calls Test cricket ”a great format of the game and it’s something that I love playing”; Nathan Lyon argues that “to get your baggy green and play Test cricket for a long time, that’s the absolute ultimate.”

Australia's Nathan Lyon celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of India's Mohammed Siraj to secure the Test World Championship title Picture: AFP

Marnus Labuschagne, typically, is never slow to accentuate the positive. “In the last three, four years it’s been unbelievable,” he said a few weeks ago. “It’s been so entertaining. The 2019 Ashes was an unbelievable series. Australia v India in Australia, really good series. We just had a pretty good series in India on some diabolical turning wickets and then you go New Zealand v England, Pakistan v England. I mean, the game’s coming alive.”

Even David Warner in setting himself to retire in a Test match has accorded the format a priority, while there was some pressure on Cameron Green when he took the Indian Premier League shilling not to do so at the expense of his long-term Test prospects.

At the same time, the players are under no illusions. When a Guardian interviewer recently estimated that Mitchell Starc had forsaken $15 million by resisting the siren song of franchise cricket, he responded: “The traditionalist in me still hopes there is a generation of boys and girls who want to represent their country in Test cricket. But the easy money is in franchise cricket, it’s the fast track to notoriety.”

Which is encouraging, if you value Test cricket, and also something for which the players deserve more credit from the game’s more tedious jeremiahs, with their unexamined assumptions that cricket these days, like everything else, is just a load of woke rubbish.

“Test cricket is still the pinnacle,” said Lyon a few weeks ago. “It is the only format where you cannot hide ….I’m definitely not concerned about the future of Test cricket but it’s on players, not just administrators, to ensure it has a future.” Don’t know about you, but he sounds pretty sincere to me.

Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc of Australia pose with the ICC World Test Championship mace. Both players have a prioritised Test cricket over the IPL throughout their careers Picture: Getty Images

Which is another reason why this Ashes loom so large, because perhaps the only other team in world cricket who talk up Test cricket as much as Australia are … England. “Test cricket is something that needs to be looked after,” said Ben Stokes earlier this year. “We don’t want Test cricket to fall off the face of the planet. It needs to stay around and we’ll do everything we possibly can as a team to keep it alive.”

It is no small thing that Stokes, who has starred in the finals of a 50-over and a 20-over World Cup, argues that there remains “no greater privilege than to represent your country in a Test match.” Bazball is among other things a reminder to remain unburdened by that privilege; to enjoy it.

That bodes well for us, because if they’re enjoying it, we are bound to.