Section:GDN 1N PaGe:41 Edition Date:190801 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/7/2019 20:08 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 1 August 2019 The Guardian •41fl oppy-hatted brutality at No 3 in
1985 to three hundreds in the series
for Chris Broad opening in 1986-87;
to Ian Bell’s wonderful stand-alone
hundreds at Trent Bridge , Lord’s
and Chester Le-Street at No 5 in
2013.
This time around England’s
batting is power-packed but
undeniably brittle, part of the wider
tide of fi rst-class cricket around the
world. The Test team has given a
debut to six top-order batsmen in
the past two years. None has yet
made a hundred. None of the top-six
batsmen England have tried since
Root made his debut seven years ago
has managed to average 40.
The default opener Rory Burns
has spent time this week at Surrey
with Neil Stewart, his youth team
coach, working on the basics of
batting and a technique that when
it goes, really goes. Alongside him
Jason Roy will attack every time,
even if attacking is only selectively
the right thing to do. England have
the capacity to fall apart like an
overly dunked digestive biscuit
against a fi ne, high-pace Aus tralian
attack.
Pat Cummins has 94 Test wickets
at 22, James Pattinson 70 at 26. They
have one possible weakness. They
have played two Tests in England
between them. They will face in
Root a No 3 who averages 54 at
home; who has 11 hundreds in 43
Tests in England; and who must
feel there is an edge to be seized or
lost by thrusting himself forward
to meet the challenge. History
suggests he may just be right.Ta s m ani an
delivers a dose
of pragmatism
to the captaincy
Analysis
Adam CollinsF
our years ago, Tim Paine
was behind the stumps
for Banbury Cricket Club.
He was not an overseas
player in the County
Championship but rather
the Home Counties Premier League
and living with the club chairman
in north Oxfordshire. He was 30,
had averaged 18 in his previous
Sheffi eld Shield season and his most
important fi nger had been operated
on seven times. Brad Haddin
was about to pass the Australia
wicketkeeping gloves to Peter Nevill.
During one of Australia’s tour
games before that Ashes series, the
question was asked where Paine
had got to. There was always an
interest in him after he made his
Test debut at Lord’s in 2010 against
Pakistan (alongside Steve Smith), a
year after making his one and only
century in the canary yellow against
England, opening the batting in a
one-day international.
He was nowhere, it was assumed
on the basis of all this. But that was
wrong. It was in this humble settingwhere Paine learned to love cricket
again. “It really rekindled the fi re,”
he said last year. “It couldn’t have
come at a better time.”
Now? He is one of the least likely
of Ashes captains. The Tasmanian
would be as mindful as anybody
that this is a one-time chance to do
something no Australian has since- Little wonder, then, he is
determined to make it count.
While not formally a selector,
Paine may as well be with the faith
stored in him by the head coach,
Justin Langer. Together they have
taken a pragmatic approach to
picking a team. There is no better
evidence of this than in how the
fast-bowling jigsaw is being put
together. Speaking in the buildup to
the opening Test, Paine reiterated
the argument of the coach that
conditions will dictate decisions.
More instructively, he explained
why this was the right time for the
cartel to be broken up.
“The last two or three years,
we’ve been way too reliant on
Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc
and Josh Hazlewood,” he said.
“They’ve played a lot of Tests and
subsequently picked up lots of
niggly injuries along the way.
“It’s a positive for all those guys.
We’ve said to the fast bowlers,
it’s a great thing for them as well
because we can now prolong their
careers for a few years. Another one
is Peter Siddle – he can get another
12 months of Test cricket if we keep
picking guys for the conditions. ”
Of course, they w ill not like it.
Specifi cally, if Starc is asked to wear
the bib instead of his baggy green on
a pitch such as that of Edgbaston –
which has a thick covering of grass,
according to Paine – he will be fi lthy.
But this will not be enough to alter
the strategic thinking that has been
applied to make sure they effi ciently
allocate their best resources. That
James Pattinson is fi t and available
for his fi rst Test since early 2016
changes the dynamic as well.M
atthew Wade’s
return to the Test
side as a specialist
No 6 also has a neat
link back to Paine’s
career. On the
evidence of what has been observed
at training – batting in sequence with
other senior players while Marnus
Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh
did not – there is little doubt that he
will be given the fi rst crack. When
picked for the squad, Paine’s fellow
Tasmanian spoke of the crossover
the pair had experienced since they
were boys. The diff erence is that
they are no longer competing for the
gloves at state or national level.
But more important than any of
that was a decision Wade took just
before he was jettisoned as Test
wicketkeeper for Paine for the last
home Ashes in November 2017.
Then, he moved home to Tasmaniafrom Victoria, where he had been
captain. Systematically tougher
batting conditions forced him to
tighten up his game to survive,
and then thrive.
“It’s a bowler-friendly wicket
at times in Bellerive and you have
to fi nd a way to score runs,” Wade
said. “I chased the ball out in front,
now I let the ball come to me and
let the ball do the work. Playing
with the Duke ball as well in
Australia has probably helped that
as well, it swings a lot more.”
Who better to have in the side to
combat the very problem that has
undone Australia here since 2001?
“The moving ball is diffi cult for
everyone,” Paine said. “It’s about
being really clear on what you’re
actually trying to achieve and the
plan you’ve got as a batter. And
it’s having the courage to walk out
into the middle, under pressure
in a Test match, and stick to that
or execute it.” In Wade, he has just
that man with a plan.
As for the presence of the
sandpaper trio, Paine knows
what is coming. But instead of
dreading what is in store from a
Birmingham crowd that know
little other than England winning- they have not lost a Test here for
11 years – he wants it to fuel them.
That sideshow will be a reminder
of the circumstances in which he
inherited this job, taken with the
broader remit to earn back the
respect and pride of the Australian
public. If he can make this work
over the next six weeks and pull
this off , there will be plenty of that.
Four years after seemingly being
fi nished, Paine would instead be an
Ashes hero for ever. That is quite
the incentive.
Paine’s fi ghting talk
Edgbaston? I know 15
more daunting grounds
Ali Martin
EdgbastonTim Paine has dismissed suggestions
that Edgbaston could have a detri-
mental eff ect on his Australia players
in the fi rst Ashes Test starting today by
claiming it would not make his top 15
most intimidating grounds.
Striking a slightly prickly fi gure on
the eve of the series – perhaps under-
standably so after 14 months of fi elding
questions about his team’s conduct
since the ball-tampering scandal last
year – the Australia captain looked to
play down England’s stronghold.
“England haven’t lost here in how
long?” asked Paine, rhetorically, in
reference to an 11-match winning run
for the home side across all formats.
“I don’t even know, I haven’t looked at
it and it doesn’t concern us.
“We think our best cricket is good
enough and the Edgbaston pitch and
Edgbaston crowd and grandstand,
or whatever it is, won’t play a part in
deciding this Test match.”
Asked if there was a more intimi-
dating ground in world cricket rightnow, he tersely replied: “Than this?
I could name you 15.”
Australia have not won at Edgbaston
since the 2001 Ashes Test and Paine
has played only two Twenty20 games
at the ground. Pakistan, not England,
were the opponents back then, with
the wicket keeper yet to experience
the bois terous Hollies Stand in Ashes
cricket.
But despite his assertion, Paine
admitted he has spoken to Steve
Smith, David Warner and Cameron
Bancroft – the trio who served suspen-
sions for their part in the Cape Town
incident – given that the boos that the
fi rst two received during their World
Cup semi-fi nal defeat at Edgbaston are
likely to increase.
“It’s got the potential to unsettle
anyone,” Paine said: “They’re human
beings, they’ve got feelings, they’re
no diff erent to anyone else. I thought
the guys handled themselves superbly
throughout the World Cup. We spoke
about the fact we think it’s going to go
up a notch. When it does you’ve got
a plan in place to handle it and that’s
what we’ve done.”
Clearly the behaviour of his side willbe heavily scrutinised over the next
seven weeks but Paine believes they
have turned a corner in this respect,
with Australia having not received
any disciplinary points since that fi ery
series against South Africa.
Paine revealed a quote – wrongly- attributed to Winston Churchill is
being used to form their position on
the subject. “We’ve spoken a little bit
about this in the last 12 months. Our
guys understand what’s expected of
them. They are role models not just for
Australian people but all around the
world. There’s been a quote hanging
around the changing room this week
from Winston Churchill and that’s
‘behaviour doesn’t lie’. We can talk
all we like about how we’re going to
behave. You guys will see how we
behave and can judge for yourselves.”
Paine was also asked about his own
worth to the side, given it is nearly 13
years since his solitary fi rst-class cen-
tury for Tasmania. Alex Carey, while
similarly lacking a back catalogue of
runs at fi rst-class level, impressed dur-
ing the World Cup but missed out on
an Ashes berth.
Paine replied: “I’m 34 years old. I
don’t really care about my place in the
side any more. I’m here to do a job. I’ve
been put in this team to captain and
keep wicket to the best of my ability.
That’s all I can do.
“At 34 years of age if you’re looking
further ahead than the next Test
match, you’re kidding yourself. I
realise how lucky I am, the position
I’ve come from and the position I’m
now in. I’m enjoying the job I’m doing,
loving being in England, being part of
an Ashes series, and I’m just looking
to enjoy it as much as I can.”Tim Paine after scoring
a century against
England in 2009▼ Tim Paine says the Edgbaston
crowd will not decide the result
RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGESJonny Bairstow 36.24
Moeen Ali 29.55
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