The Daily Telegraph - 01.08.2019

Betting

MICHAEL

VAUGHAN

Anderson and Broad

may never face Australia

again but can have big

influence on this series

T

his is probably the

last series in which

we will see our

greatest-ever

combination of seam

bowlers playing

together. Can the experience of

Stuart Broad and James Anderson

drive this team home?

The side must be carrying some

form of hangover from the World

Cup win. Can that experienced pair

ensure that a young team who have

just achieved a massive high

concentrate on the basics that will

win an Ashes series?

England play an expansive,

aggressive way but can Anderson

and Broad make sure the team play

intelligently as well? I hope these

two great bowlers draw on their

years of experience and have a

word with the batsmen and plead

with them to see off a bowler if he

is having a good spell.

The Australians will only pick

three seamers. Broad and

Anderson can tell their own

batsmen how hard it is to be part of

a three-man attack if the batting

side dig in and make life hard.

When you have to bowl three or

four spells it is a long, hard day out

in the middle. I am sure Broad and

Anderson will be encouraging

positive strokeplay but also saying:

“Come on, let’s make it hard for

them”. Force their bowlers to come

back for three or four spells in a

day or make Nathan Lyon hold an

end on day one. The Ashes is the

greatest cricketing showpiece and

one that tests every facet of your

game and personality, and these

next five matches could also be

emotional, too, because Broad and

Anderson could be retiring.

I cannot see them bowling

against Australia again even if they

decide to carry on for another

summer. In English conditions

they still have it. Anderson has

proved that over the past two

years. Broad will be fired up by an

Ashes and at some point will

produce a spell that makes a

difference. But it is always hard to

raise your game when deep down

you know you are coming towards

the end. What Alastair Cook

achieved at the Oval by scoring a

hundred in his last Test was

remarkable. But it is rare. I hope

there is a fairy-tale finish for Broad

and Anderson if they go this

summer, but it is rare for that to

happen. Broad, Anderson and

Chris Woakes will know that one of

them will miss out eventually to

accommodate Jofra Archer. It is a

massive boost for Joe Root to have

three senior bowlers looking over

their shoulder because Archer and

Sam Curran are waiting in the

wings and Mark Wood could come

back later in the series.

Competition for places is what

you need when you reach the latter

stages of your career. If you know

your place is safe then you can be a

little lethargic and take it for

granted. Jimmy has plenty of credit

in the bank but Stuart will know he

has to bowl well at Edgbaston this

week to guarantee his place for the

Lord’s Test. Who is to say this will

not be his last chance to bowl in a

Lord’s Test? It is a great carrot for

him to bowl brilliantly this week.

At the highest level you have to be

desperate to succeed and that

motivation should help.

Matches in this series will be

close and won by a batsman

making a hundred in tough

circumstances. The bowling will

be collective because both attacks

have skill and firepower. It is the

batsmen that will be under the

most pressure and it will be about

who can score a scrappy fifty or

take the game away when the ball

is older with a quick-fire 78 like

Curran did last summer and Jos

Buttler did on a few occasions in

the winter. I have no problem with

Root going to No 3. I have never

been bothered about batting

orders, I am more concerned about

a player’s mentality towards

batting. These players have it in

them to produce workmanlike Test

match innings. Jonny Bairstow has

done it before. Buttler scored a

hundred at Trent Bridge last year

that contained lots of dots. Apart

from the three inexperienced

players in the top four, the rest

have all played Test match innings

and what I do not want to hear is

them excusing bad shots by saying

that is “how we play”.

The way you play is dictated by

the state of the game. They have

done it before. Can they do it on a

consistent basis in this series

because it will be the team that

plays smart cricket that will win

the Ashes? In England you have to

be smart and savvy to win.

Grandees must

put hosts’ young

side in the mood

Matches will be

close and won by a

batsman making a

hundred in tough

circumstances

Woakes, Stuart Broad and James

Anderson. With Archer certain to

play at Lord’s because Root wants

an express fast bowler at his dis-

posal, it means Broad and Woakes

are under pressure to perform in

Birmingham to keep their places.

“Jofra is coming back from a very

serious injury. We looked at condi-

tions, what we thought was best to

take 20 wickets here and it also al-

lows him time to get absolutely

ready and fit,” said Root. “Jimmy

continues to improve. Conditions

have suited him but he’s absolutely

made the most of it. He continues to

find ways of taking wickets and

building pressure on any given sur-

face, he continues to be a great

leader of our attack. At 37 to keep

improving is a great trait to have.”

Root confirmed his move to No 3,

a decision designed to bolster an

inexperienced batting line-up as it

comes up against one of the best

seam bowling attacks in the world.

“It’s important to spread the

experience out and it gives me an

opportunity to lead from the front,”

he said. “I feel I’ve got my head

around the captaincy and my bat-

ting and I’m able to separate the

two. It’s an opportunity for me to

make an impact at the top of the

order. It’s a very exciting top order.

I want Jason to play in his own way,

naturally he has the ability to put

any bowler under pressure at any

time. The most important thing is

to keep things very simple and

focused, and continually work hard

to get those good partnerships.”

Root revealed he had been plead-

ing with the England and Wales

Cricket Board to allow Ben Stokes

to resume his role as vice-captain.

Stokes was sacked from the role af-

ter he was arrested on suspicion of

actual bodily harm just before the

last Ashes series. He was only

restored as Root’s deputy at the

weekend when permission was

granted by Colin Graves, the ECB

chairman. Root said: “Ben has his

own way of getting his message

across – very unique and different

to the rest of the group but he

always gets a response. To have

someone like that by your side fills

me with huge confidence.”

‘Cricket is at an

all-time high. We

can make summer a

memorable one’

which is the strength of both sides;

and rate Australia superior in spin

bowling, especially as Nathan

Lyon will have five England left-

handers to target; and rate Aus-

tralia stronger in top-order batting,

too, thanks to their preparation.

Tim Paine and cohorts have been

practising against red balls on the

Australia A tour of England; half

of their team have played

championship cricket,

three of them this season,

whereas Jos Buttler and

Ben Stokes played their

last red-ball game in

St Lucia back in February.

Another Australian ad-

vantage is that their bats-

men will be able to get back

in the saddle if they start this

series badly: they have a first-

class game against Worcester-

shire after this opening Test,

and another against Derbyshire

after the third at Headingley.

Rory Burns, after making six

and six against Ireland, has no

which have cost him his wicket so

often in recent years, as he attempts

to impose himself on the bowlers

rather play the ball on its merits –

then Jason Roy should bat at four,

and Denly open. Curran at four

might score as many runs as Denly

in a whole series: and why not a

day-watchman, if a nightwatchman

can work as well as Jack Leach at

Lord’s?

Losing the first Test is not the

way to win an Ashes series – the last

time either country came back

from losing the opener to win the

series was in 2005, which helped to

make it the epic it was – so England

cannot afford to let Australia win

here, for the first time since 2001.

Concussion substitutes were

not used during the Body-

line series of 1932-33,

otherwise Harold Lar-

wood would have re-

shaped Australia’s

batting line-up.

In this fixture the

match referee Ranjan Ma-

dugalle may have a nice de-

cision to make when judging

whether a replacement is like-

for-like: he must come from his

side’s squad. By a great irony, the

pretext offered by England’s then-

administrators for stuffing three

Ashes series into 26 months in the

middle of this decade –

jeopardising the popular-

ity of the genre – was to

stop World Cups follow-

ing directly after Ashes

series in Australia. Lo

and behold, we have

instead an Ashes series

following the World Cup,

and the signs are it will

disadvantage England more

than Australia.

7

Nathan Lyon

needs seven more

wickets to claim

350 Test

victims

100

Stuart Broad

needs five wickets

to claim 100

Ashes scalps

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Rory Burns

Jason Roy

Joe Root (capt)

Joe Denly

Jos Buttler

Ben Stokes

Jonny Bairstow (w)

Moeen Ali

Chris Woakes

Stuart Broad

James Anderson

Umpires: Aleem Dar, Joel Wilson

David Warner

Cameron Bancroft

Usman Khawaja

Steve Smith

Travis Head

Matthew Wade

Tim Paine (capt, w)

James Pattinson

Pat Cummins

Peter Siddle

Nathan Lyon

(probable team)

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TV Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports

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Live blog telegraph.co.uk/sport/

Weather 18-21C, overcast, possible

rain shower mid-afternoon,

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England 10/11

Australia 6/4

Draw 11/2

Odds from William Hill

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chance of finding form if this series

does not go well.

England have already omitted

their most prolific match-winner of

the last year. Sam Curran, with his

batting, turned the tide in the

Edgbaston Test last summer

against India, and in three other

Tests since then, yet he was

running alone on the outfield yes-

terday afternoon. Given over-

cast conditions, Curran’s

left-arm swing will also

be missed.

It makes sense for

Chris Woakes, who

kisses the deck, to start

here ahead of Jofra

Archer, who bangs it in,

but not for Root to pro-

mote himself to No 3 and

thereby protect Joe Denly at four. If

Root does want to bat at three – and

thereby curb the expansive strokes

The Daily Telegraph Thursday 1 August 2019 *** 3
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