Ricky Ponting’s misfiring squad is talking a big game, despite the spectre of becoming the first Australian side to lose an Ashes series on home soil in 24 years looming over them. England has employed a more passive-aggressive approach, desperate to avoid a repeat of their last tour to the antipodes as Ashes-holders in the summer of 2006-07.
Australia Talk Up Chances
Despite Australia’s dismal series loss in England last year and scratchy form in the twelve months since, Ponting last week declared replicating the 5-0 whitewash dished out to the hapless Poms four years ago is well within his team’s grasp. “There’s no reason why not. It’s all in our hands,” the skipper told reporters last week. The bold claim was publicly supported by fast bowling tyro Doug Bollinger.
Australia’s record since relinquishing the Ashes with a 197-run fifth Test loss at The Oval last August has been less than convincing. Although they were unbeaten in home series against West Indies and Pakistan, Australia looked vulnerable at times against the struggling former heavyweights, and only a diabolical wicketkeeping performance from Pakistani gloveman Kamran Akmal saved Ponting from a humiliating defeat in Sydney after electing to bat first on a dream bowling wicket. The Australians comfortably accounted for New Zealand in March, but drew the recent England-hosted two-Test series against Pakistan 1-1.
England, meanwhile, drew a spirited four-Test series in South Africa one-all and is currently 2-1 ahead in a delicately poised home series with Pakistan. The Ashes holders will not play another Test between the fourth encounter with Pakistan and the November showdown in Brisbane against Australia, who will embark on a whirlwind tour of India in October. The English side gained another psychological edge over their traditional nemesis with a one-day series victory against the touring Australians in June.
Ponting Under Pressure
Ponting’s captaincy again came under the microscope when he opted to send his men into bat in questionable conditions against Pakistan at Headingly last month. Australia was rolled for 88 in the first innings, before Pakistan made hard work of the victory to eventually triumph by three wickets. Vice-captain Michael Clarke has recently come out in defence of his out-of-form skipper, announcing Ponting is ready to dominate the upcoming Ashes series. Ponting, who is eyeing another Ashes tour in 2013, has averaged under 25 in his past two Test series and has produced just one century since the 2009 Ashes defeat.
While Ponting’s position in the side is secure, others are not so safe. Dust-or-diamonds all-rounder Marcus North is hanging onto his spot by a fingernail, while Australia’s fast bowling contingent is not yet settled. Spinner Nathan Hauritz has been rubber-stamped by Ponting as a ‘lock’ for the Ashes side after a superb southern hemisphere summer, but with ten wickets at 32.10 in the 2009 Ashes, Hauritz hardly poses a Shane Warne-like threat to the English batsmen.
Swann Big Ashes Threat
England has its own spin hero in the shape of quirky, in-form tweaker Graeme Swann. Named England’s Cricketer of the Year in May, Swann produced a sensational delivery to dismiss Imran Farhat two weeks ago, rivalling Warne’s ‘ball of the century’ removal of Mike Gatting in 1993. Swann is sure to be the darling of the ‘Barmy Army’ – and a prime target for the partisan Australian crowds. The Australian side has also applied the blowtorch to English opener Alistair Cook, who snapped a dramatic form slump with a century against Pakistan last week after scoring just 106 runs in his previous eight Test innings.
England Bunker Down
Running the risk of appearing aloof and unfriendly, England have announced they will make just one public appearance during their three-month stay in Australia, which will give the unforgiving Australian crowds just cause to amplify their disdain for the tourists. The strategy has worked against English skippers Nasser Hussain and Andrew Flintoff on past tours of Australia, and the recent announcement is bemusing, particularly considering Andrew Strauss’ easy and natural decorum in the public sphere.
In contrast to the Australia side’s trumpeting, Strauss and his team-mates have been conspicuously quiet in the pre-Ashes banter to date, adding another strand of intrigue to the most eagerly anticipated Test series since, well, England’s last series in Australia. The hosts will understandably start favourites with the bookies, but not at the price punters would be accustomed to, and the feeling is that breaking a drought on Australian soil that stretches back to the summer of 1986-87 is within England’s grasp.
William Evans - Despite growing up in the Rugby Union heartland of Otago, New Zealand, Rugby League has been my lifelong passion. I am a keen student of ...
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