By Andrew Wu
After a lead-up dominated by off-field scandals and the politics of COVID-19, the focus can finally turn to the action on the field: to selections, strategies and showdowns, which fans will be hoping can make the 2021-22 Ashes series one to remember.
There are players from both sides set to get their first taste of the game’s richest tradition, but the urn will be decided by storied names who have already added so much to the Ashes tapestry.
Nathan Lyon could be key to stopping Ben Stokes.Credit: The Age
For England, captain Joe Root is relying heavily on two men: evergreen pace duo James Anderson and Stuart Broad, for whom this must surely be the final campaign in Australia.
Anderson, 39, earned his Ashes stripes against Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and co. One of his rivals this summer, Cameron Green, was just seven at the time. Broad was a central figure in Australia’s 2010-11 debacle, which had all manner of ramifications for the game in this country.
Back then, Steve Smith, a chubby young batter who could also bowl leg-spin, was brought into the Australian XI literally for hits and giggles, David Warner was considered a Twenty20 specialist who lacked the smarts for Test cricket, and Nathan Lyon was a greenkeeper sitting wide-eyed on a roller at Adelaide Oval, unaware of how his life was about to change.
Pat Cummins, Australia’s 47th male Test captain, had yet to be discovered.
The duels between these modern Ashes heroes will go a long way to determining if Cummins’ men can achieve what has become a rite of passage for Australian cricketers by conquering the Old Enemy at home, or whether Root’s crew can pull off what only one England side has managed in 25 years and win on foreign soil.
In the fourth of a series of match-ups leading into the first Test, The Age and the Herald examine how Australia might best quell Ben Stokes’ brilliant bat.
Scroll down to see why Broad, for years a pantomime villain to Australian audiences, has had the upper hand over Warner; a look at arguably the most intriguing match-up of the series in Anderson v Marnus Labuschagne; the blueprint for England’s success against Smith – whose astonishing 2019 series is the stuff of Ashes folklore – and why Cummins is the man to target Root.
Ben Stokes v Nathan Lyon
Among the many mistakes Australia made during the frantic finish at Headingley, Tim Paine’s move to recall Lyon for one last crack at Stokes was not one of them.
The Australians still cannot comprehend how Stokes defied the odds by hitting against the spin from the rough so many times without meeting his demise.
Lyon’s botched run-out attempt will go down in Ashes folklore, so too Joel Wilson’s rejection of a desperate – and well-founded – lbw appeal that would have propelled the off-spinner from zero to hero, and Paine’s powerlessness to challenge having exhausted his reviews on a Hail Mary referral the previous over.
It was the sixth time in two Tests that Lyon had either dismissed the star all-rounder or had opportunities squandered in the field or by a non-review.
The point here is not to wallow in the past but to show how important Lyon’s spinning fingers will be to repel a rampaging Stokes.
Only Ravichandran Ashwin has dismissed Stokes more in Test cricket than Lyon’s six. Of the four bowlers who have removed the left-handed Stokes the most in Test cricket, three are off-spinners.
“The battle with Stokes, who hasn’t played cricket for a long time, it’s a battle I think Nathan will win more often than not,” former great turned analyst Lisa Sthalekar, who collected 206 wickets with her off-breaks, said.
“It does pose for an entertaining duel. In every series, there are certain players that you just stop what you’re doing, I’ve got to see this play out. I think this will be one of those battles.”
His average of 30.7 to offies, against a career mark of 37, is his lowest against all forms of bowling, excepting medium-pacers, who, curiously, have sent him to the pavilion five times from 205 balls.
If the subtleties of spin do not work, then the express speed of Mitchell Starc is an alternative. Left-arm quicks Mitchell Johnson (four from nine games), Starc (three from six) and Trent Boult (three from five) all have had success against Stokes. Of course, their effectiveness could be due to them being among the best of their era rather than being southpaws.
In Starc’s case, his three wickets have come at less than 15. It does not include Starc’s 145 kilometre/hour missile, which cannoned into the base of Stokes’s off stump during a vital 2019 World Cup group game.
Steve Smith v England
Smith has made one century since the 2019 Ashes. Let that fact sink in for a minute. One ton in nine Tests from the man whose recent Ashes record gives cricket fans today an appreciation of what Don Bradman must have been like to watch his whole career.
The 2019 series was Smith’s Ashes. Credit: Jo Gay
Fortunately for England, whose bowlers have seen Smith amass 1461 runs at 121.75 in the past two series, there is a blueprint for success.
Since Smith’s superhero series in 2019, 37.55 per cent of the 1313 balls he has faced have pitched back of a length or shorter compared to 31.44 per cent in that year’s Ashes. His average in that time is 37.8.
New Zealand enforcer Neil Wagner was the first to find a flaw two years ago, bombarding Smith’s ribs and shoulder.
Of the 627 deliveries Smith faced in the Trans-Tasman series, according to Opta, nearly 22 per cent pitched back of a length on leg (7.5 per cent) or even shorter on leg (14.2 per cent). During the Ashes, England bowled just 1.17 per cent of balls in these zones.
Smith was held to 214 runs at 42.8 by the Black Caps – more than acceptable but not the dominant force he had been – and his scoring rate of 34 runs per 100 balls nearly half that of his Ashes performance months earlier.
England, though, does not have a bowler with Wagner’s weapons. A left-armer, he can attack Smith through angles a right-armer cannot, and bowlers with the stamina and strength to hurl down bouncers as a stock ball instead of a change up for long periods are rare.
“It’s heart and guts,” former Test swingman Damien Fleming said. “You get cramped for room, so it takes the off-side out, so you can only score on the leg side.”
Twelve months later, India applied their own variation to Wagner’s approach. They did not have a Wagner clone but had the quicks with the skill and discipline to target Smith’s body, and men at leg gully and in front of square to deny him the easy single to get off strike.
India’s tactics were also effective, limiting Smith to one century and an average of 45 en route to an unlikely series win. If the field placements to Stokes and Broad in England’s practice match last week are a guide, Smith should brace for similar strategies.
Mark Wood has the extra pace to pepper Smith with bumpers but “for the rest of the bowlers they’re going to need to be totally disciplined with their lines and lengths”, Fleming said.
“They definitely can’t even afford to bowl a fourth-stump line because he works it through the leg side,” Fleming said.
“If they bowl straighter you have a leg slip or catching mid-wicket if he clips it in the air, but you can’t afford to give him any room outside off stump because it’s going to go for four. Or if it is a fifth, sixth-stump line, make him come at you.”
It makes for a battle of attrition and is reliant on an error from the batter. Smith loves batting, and rarely makes mistakes.
“The one thing about ‘Smithy’ is he’s prepared to bat ugly and bat time,” Fleming said.
David Saker, the former Australia and England bowling coach now back at the helm of the Melbourne Renegades, believes leg slip, a position Smith alluded to in 2019 as a waste of a fielder, is crucial for England, even if he is rarely caught there.
“If they don’t have a leg slip, I can’t see them getting him out,” Saker said. “It doesn’t mean you get him out caught at leg slip, it just keeps him leg-side of the ball, so he’s then a chance to nick it.
“When he can get in line with off stump and get his head in line with off stump he’s as good as it gets. You have to play around a little bit with Steve’s mind.”
David Warner v Stuart Broad
Two days before the fourth Test in 2019, Warner was a study of assuredness and concentration in the indoor nets at Old Trafford.
“Head still, watch the ball,” coach Justin Langer ordered from the other end of the synthetic pitch, before every ball he fed into a bowling machine set up around the wicket to simulate Broad’s line, length and angle.
Any delivery Warner did not leave found the middle of his bat. He bore no resemblance to the opener who had been dismissed cheaply four times in his previous six innings by Broad. In the next two games, his nemesis nailed him three times.
Badly beaten in Broad’s backyard, Warner is back on Australian soil where he averages 60 in Ashes Tests compared to 26 in England. The numbers are also flipped for Broad, whose 34 wickets at 37 here are the numbers of a middle of the road seamer compared to his 341 victims at 26 back home.
But the onset of La Niña – a weather event that brings increased rainfall across the country’s north and east – could leave Warner feeling a long way from home. The phenomenon also struck in the Ashes of 2010-11. The result? Australia suffered their first Ashes defeat in 24 years, hammered three times by an innings, prompting a root and branch review into the game.
Broad’s length ball outside off stump, which left Warner in two minds whether to play or leave two years ago, is not as effective on these shores. The delivery that threatened the top of his stumps in England will fly safely over to the keeper here due to the extra bounce of Australian pitches.
To bring the stumps into play, Broad needs to bowl a fuller length, but the margin of error is smaller before he over-pitches.
The Kookaburra ball does not offer as much assistance to the bowlers as the Dukes used in the UK but the grey skies and higher humidity is expected to help Broad and James Anderson more than Australia’s pacemen.
Saker, the mastermind of England’s success with the ball 11 years ago, is not underestimating the impact the weather could have on the series, saying it could be the catalyst for Anderson, 39, and Broad, 35, to inspire the visitors to an upset win.
“The English are so good at exploiting that, they tend to bowl a tad fuller when that is happening,” Saker said.
“If they get the conditions I wouldn’t want to face two other bowlers like that, particularly Broad to left-handers. Davey Warner wouldn’t want the ball moving much if he’s facing ‘Broady’.
“If it’s flatter wickets they won’t be as influential and their age might catch up with them. If it’s in their favour I wouldn’t want to be facing them.”
Stuart Broad celebrates snaring David Warner’s wicket.Credit: Getty Images
Former Australia fast man Ryan Harris, the wingman to Mitchell Johnson in the 2013-14 blitz, is expecting Warner to turn the tables on Broad.
“He won’t have that same effect, I don’t think, with the Kookaburra ball,” Harris said. “If he does, he’s a genius. He hasn’t the last few times he’s been here.”
Pat Cummins v Joe Root
Australian teams have long targeted the opposition captain in the belief that an underperforming skipper would drag a few others down with him. In Root, there is the added bonus for Australia that he is also England’s best batter. The cherry on top would be if the hosts’ newly inaugurated general, Cummins, led the charge.
In the two Ashes series they have locked horns, it is Cummins who has emerged triumphant, claiming Root’s wicket seven times in the equivalent of 48.1 overs at the cost of just 20 apiece. Josh Hazlewood’s ability to challenge Root’s outside edge has also posed problems, but to a lesser scale than Cummins’ precision and speed.
As far as statements go, none are louder or more emphatic than Cummins’ dismissal of a bewildered Root, bowled the top of off-stump first ball late on day four in England’s forlorn fight to save the urn at Old Trafford in 2019 (as you can see below).
Averaging just over 40 against Australia, Root’s Ashes record is more than acceptable but not befitting his status as one of the Big Four batters in the international game, more so when put against Smith’s numbers in world cricket’s longest rivalry.
Australia has not been a happy hunting ground either for Root, who was dropped after a modest series in the 2013-14 whitewash and demoralised in the 4-0 rout of four years ago.
Pat Cummins dismisses Joe Root during the 2019 Ashes.Credit: Channel Nine
The 2021 version of Root is a far more imposing adversary than the man whose membership of world cricket’s Big Four of batting was close to being rescinded due to his inability to convert 50s into game-changing centuries.
In an underperforming team, the diminutive Root has emerged as a giant, plundering 1455 runs at 66 in a red-letter year. Few disagree with the notion that if England are to regain the urn Root’s golden run must continue.
Oh captain: England’s Joe Root and Australia’s Pat Cummins.Credit: The Age
So, what is behind Root’s rise from underperformer to world-beater? After combing through reams of tape during the 2020-21 UK lockdown of each of his dismissals over the previous five years, Root made a technical tweak, which has paid major dividends.
A back-leg trigger movement, which used to go back and across, is now straighter towards the stumps, allowing him to remain more side-on. Because the line of his shoulders and hips is straighter, his hands, and bat, will follow down the ground instead of to mid-on. He is now better positioned to defend deliveries such as that by Cummins at Old Trafford.
The change may be minor but when only inches separate the middle of the bat from the edge every bit counts.
Saker observed the difference in his game earlier this year watching Root punish his Sri Lanka attack.
“It’s not as noticeable when he’s facing more spin than fast bowling - he’s gone straighter back,” Saker told The Age and the Herald.
“He still goes across a little bit, but not as much, which makes him not as vulnerable to lb, and he accesses the off-side quite well. The only problem if you stay leg side of the ball a bit [is] you’re a chance to nick it. You got to get out some ways, don’t you?”
The data supports the theory. From 2018-20, a period in which he averaged 39.7, Root was out bowled or lbw in 16 of his 57 dismissals (28.07 per cent), compared to four from 22 (18.18 per cent) this year. His rate of false shots, and plays and misses, have also dropped, according to numbers obtained from stats supplier Opta.
What cannot be measured objectively is the passion that drives a cricketer, who has already achieved so much in his career, to study hours of footage during lockdown in the pursuit of greatness.
“A lot of his change the last 18 months has been his mindset and hunger to make those 70s into big scores,” Saker said.
“It was very hot in Galle, and he was batting for long periods of time. He didn’t get many decisions wrong. Then he went back and did it again in the English summer.
“He’s going to be their No.1 wicket, isn’t he? They’ve got to get him in early enough to exploit him.”
Marnus Labuschagne v James Anderson
Five balls, no runs, one wicket. That is the extent of arguably the most intriguing match-up of the series.
After 19 years in international cricket, there is hardly a world-class batter Anderson has not bowled to, so the challenge of conquering the latest arrival to the top echelon is one the veteran will relish.
The pair have not locked horns at Test level but squared off at county level in May, with Anderson prevailing, dismissing Australia’s No.3 for a five-ball duck.
Perhaps wary after surviving an lbw shout to one that seamed back the previous delivery, Labuschagne nicked off to an Anderson special on the fourth-stump line that straightened.
The Dukes ball under grey cloud at Old Trafford in May is tailor-made for such a play, which is not as easy to pull off with the Kookaburra in Australian conditions. The effect of La Niña, however, is the great unknown.
Labuschagne’s strength since his rise up the ranks has been his leg-side play. Fleming sees this as a potential weakness for the world’s No.4 batter against Anderson’s stock ball, the out-swinger.
“I like players who hit to leg because they’re hitting against the swing,” Fleming, one of few genuine swing bowlers Australia has produced in the last 30 years, said.
“As long as it’s swinging I’d think Anderson would think he’s a really good chance.
“He’s a good leaver, Marnus, to be fair, but there comes a time when you want to score. Anderson could have some bowler-friendly conditions at the Gabba, day-night in Adelaide. If we get a second day-night Test match, that will help Anderson big time.
“If it’s batter-friendly conditions I can’t see Jimmy playing too much of a role.”
Saker, Anderson’s mentor when England were at their pomp from 2010-12, believes his former protege will fancy Labuschagne as an lbw candidate.
Labuschagne’s pronounced shuffle across the crease can entice bowlers to attack the stumps but, like Smith, they do not fall over and rarely miss.
“I think he’ll fancy lb-ing him, but there might be a method to that,” Saker said. “Jimmy is very good at working a batter out outside off, get him across his stumps, then go for the lb.
“He doesn’t go straight for the kill. He’s like one of those silent assassins when he’s going well.
“I’m pretty sure Australia will be on to that as well because they’ve watched him bowl enough.
“Jimmy does his research better than anyone. He’ll have clear plans, I don’t know them, but I think he’ll fancy lb-ing him and most teams do fancy lb-ing Marnus – but he doesn’t miss much.”
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