Ashes 2017 | How England can tame the Australian beast Down Under

England were annihilated throughout the Ashes to such an extent that most of their players were in disbelief of the sudden transformation of their team’s fortunes during the series. Almost four years later, as England have stepped on Australian soil yet again for their ‘redemption series’, the memories of their previous visit (read Mitchell Johnson) would continue to haunt them but they would be looking to wipe them off this time. With the series just around the corner, it would be quite fitting to come up with the factors that are going to be crucial for England’s success this time around, based on an analysis of England’s performances over the past 3 Ashes (2013, 2013/14 and 2015). The aspects/departments of the game which have had an impact on their overall performances during those 3 series will be analyzed below. These aspects are indeed the important parameters that will be vital to the visitors’ success in the upcoming series.

So, the immediate question now would be as to whether the middle order has been one of the performance determining factors or not for England.

The success of England’s middle order in 2013 and 2015 can be attributed to the fact that one of them would look to take on an anchor role and stabilize things and steer the team into a commanding position (Bell in 2013 and Root in 2015) with a big knock, while the others would play second fiddle and provide relatively smaller contributions. With a few cameos from the lower order, the team would eventually end up with a competitive total but the innings would effectively revolve around one person. With the current middle order lacking experience, Root would have to step up and play the anchor role if his team needs to fire in the batting department. The supporting knocks would be equally important too and the likes of Malan and Bairstow have impressed in the warm-ups in that regard.

The success of England’s middle order in 2013 and 2015 was achieved in different ways though. In 2013, the middle order accumulated runs through classic Test match batting i.e. leaving everything outside off, blocking the straight ones and capitalizing on the bad balls, which were offered regularly. Their approach in 2015 was a bit different though, as they had a much more positive and counter-attacking mindset, even after early wickets went down. A delivery which would have been defended in 2013 would at least be pushed for a single in order to keep the run-rate going. This difference in approach has been reflected in their Strike Rates, but the stroke play had still been very sensible which was lacking in 2013/14.

Bowling 

In 2013, Anderson, Broad, and Swann had contributed so much themselves that the services of other bowlers like Finn and Bresnan weren’t even required too often. The pacers were getting swing and movement and the pitches were offering a good amount of turn and bounce, which was enough for these 3 bowlers to have a party in the middle.

Apart from Broad and Stokes, the other English bowlers weren’t close to being effective in the 2013/14 series. Since the pitches there weren’t conducive to swing or spin, it negated the threat posed by those two bowlers, which meant that the other bowlers needing to step up to the occasion but that was not to be. The consistency was poor as the pacers didn’t maintain the good lengths and off stump line too often. At times when they did bowl well and got early wickets, they erred way too often to the middle order and lost the plot. Such inconsistency from the pacers exerted a lot of pressure on the likes of Swann and Panesar to pick up wickets and hence, they ended up flighting the ball too much which proved to be easy scoring opportunities. 

Such teamwork and consistency from the English pacers would be required this time if they need to turn things around as Australia are not the place where a single bowler like Broad can win you games. The absence of Stokes and Finn might turn out to be body blows for England as they would be left with very limited first choice pacers. Owing to this, they might just struggle in this department despite Woakes’s good outings in the warm-up fixtures.

Fielding and Wicket-keeping

Post the analysis of England’s ‘Key Factors’, it can be noted that the bowling department might just be a worry for them owing to their casualties. Despite this, one can surely expect a much closer and exciting series than in 2013/14, after Australia’s surprising team selections for the first 2 Tests. Adding to this the first ever D/N Ashes Test, the expectations for the series are only increasing by the day and this will surely be another treat for cricket fans across the globe.

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