Australia’s world-class quartet carry heavy burden
It was exactly 12 months ago yesterday that Jos Buttler scored a brilliant, unbeaten hundred at Old Trafford to take England to a first ever whitewash over a weakened Australia. Led by a captain in Tim Paine who did not merit his place in the best XI and without star players who were either banned or injured, the old enemy looked a hollowed out shell of a team in a 5-0 defeat. It was almost sad to behold. Almost.
Australia v England: Follow our live blog from 7pm tonight
Historically, though, downturns in Australian cricket have lasted for shorter periods of time than here and it is no surprise to see them resurgent in this World Cup, sitting comfortably behind New Zealand in second place, having won five of their six games to date. The solitary defeat — a more comprehensive one than the final scorecard suggested — came against India at the Oval, although had West Indies marshalled a run chase more shrewdly, Australia would now be fretting on eight points alongside England, rather than ten.
The explanation for the upturn in fortunes is simple. We can look past buzzwords beloved of coaches such as “culture”, “honesty” and “mateship”, however elite, and look to those players who were missing then and have now returned. David Warner, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are a world-class quartet and with Glenn Maxwell installed in the middle order and seemingly benefiting from the captain Aaron Finch’s belief in him, there is a strong spine running down the team again.
The return of these players highlights Australia’s key weakness as well, which is the gap between them and the rest. The drop-off in quality after the new-ball bowlers, Starc and Cummins, is significant. Australia lack the threat that some other teams carry in the middle overs, with Adam Zampa’s leg spin and Marcus Stoinis’s medium-pacers especially vulnerable. The assertion that cricket is a team game entirely is a dubious one, and the longer the format, the more world-class players are able to shape a match and put their imprint upon it. Nevertheless, Australia’s champions carry a heavy burden.
Much has been made about the public’s reactions to Warner and Smith, who will be playing against England for the first time in a full international match since the 12-month bans were imposed by their board for ball tampering. Eoin Morgan was wise to try to stay above the fray yesterday in his pre-match comments, rather than instruct the audience how to react, as Virat Kohli attempted to at the Oval. Spectators will react how they wish and provided there is no physical or verbal abuse, they should be free to do so. Either way, it has little effect on experienced players who are conditioned to shut out the noise, and use whatever reaction comes as motivation.
Warner looks especially keen to make up for lost time. Until Shakib Al Hasan overtook him yesterday, nobody in the tournament had scored more runs and if his batting has been a little more sedate than usual early on, then every team requires someone who can hold things together and allow others freedom to attack. Warner, so far, is playing the same role for Australia as Joe Root does for England. They squared up once upon a time and in a more restrained setting than the Walkabout pub in Birmingham, Lord’s offers them a chance to do so again.
Smith, who lives for batting, has not spent quite as much time at the crease as he might have liked, partly because of the good form of the openers (Aaron Finch has 396 runs alongside Warner) but also because of the uncertainty over his position. It seems plain to outside observers that he must be given maximum opportunity, and therefore bat at No 3 rather than four, but Australia are overstaffed with those, such as Usman Khawaja, who prefer to bat in the top three — an opposite problem to England’s in Test cricket. Smith has started at No 3 twice, No 4 three times and slid further down against Bangladesh when the slog was on.
In some ways, Warner’s approach against the new ball and Smith’s position in the order reflect the clash of philosophies between these teams. Whereas England see the first ten overs, given the nature of the pitches and the absence of swing, as an opportunity to score boundaries (whether they will do so against Starc and Cummins and without Jason Roy remains to be seen), Australia have gone back to the tried and tested method, which has brought them so much success in 50-over cricket down the years, keeping wickets intact and accelerating gradually through the innings.
As a result, the key battle may come at the start where the batsmen on both sides will be tested by some outstanding fast bowlers on a pitch that, yesterday at least, had an even carpet of grass. Jofra Archer has seen plenty of Australian batsmen close at hand in the Big Bash and with Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League where he was on the same side as Smith. He is a brilliant bowler at left-handers because he gets so close to the stumps, and it should be a mouth-watering contest with Warner.
With 15 wickets in the competition, Archer is top of the pops right now alongside Starc and Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir, with Mark Wood (12) and Cummins (11) close at hand. With his ability to bowl fast and swing the ball from a full length, along with his precision at the end of the innings, Starc represents a significant threat and with thunderstorms forecast in the morning, he may yet enjoy the kind of swing that makes him devastating.
In pointed remarks on Cricket Australia’s website, Finch admitted that Australia were sucked into trying to copy England’s aggressive approach last year, something that backfired. He wondered, too, about the difference between a bilateral one-day series, when batsmen can throw caution to the wind, and a World Cup, when mistakes carry consequences. England’s ability to withstand pressure will be put to the test once again.
They did not cope well in that regard against Sri Lanka and while it is not yet panic time, defeat at Headingley has introduced a tremor. Should Pakistan go unbeaten from now on, and should England fail to beat the old enemy at Lord’s, it would mean that victory over India and New Zealand would be required. You have to go back almost four years to the last time England lost consecutive ODIs at home. On what should be a fabulous occasion, now would not be a good time to do it again.
The Times