The Daily Telegraph - 01.08.2019

12 *** Thursday 1 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph

The Ashes

MY ALL-TIME ENGLAND ASHES XI

Scyld Berry, Cricket Journalist of the Year, trawls the record books

to pick his team from the greatest cricketing contest of them all

Of all the absurdities in the

all-time England Test XI

announced by the England and

Wales Cricket Board at the

1,000th Test in 2017, the

omission of Hobbs came top.

A Test century against Australia

has always been the litmus test

of every English batsman, and

Hobbs scored 12 – three more

than anyone else – in his 41

Ashes Tests, in spite of losing

his prime to World War One.

Superlative cover point too.

It is not so much his innings of

364 against Australia in 1938

which secures his place in the

team, but being England’s best

batsman after World War Two,

when he was Joe Root-plus in

an era when England were

equally short of Test batsmen.

Imagine the uproar if batsmen

had to face a second new ball

after 55 overs now – yet he

averaged 56 and has to be

captain, after winning the

Ashes home and away.

Sutcliffe played

between the World

Wars in the age that

was most conducive

to batting but still, an

average of 66 against

Australia made him

the pillar of the

Ashes-winning sides

of 1926, 1928-29 and

1932-33, in the first

two as Hobbs’s

opening partner. Sir

Alastair Cook makes a

strong case to rival

Sutcliffe, with his 766

runs in the 2010-11

series, but he

averaged less than

30 in four other

Ashes series.

Playing against

Australia brought the

best out of him – he

scored nine Ashes

centuries, equal with

Hammond, second

only to Hobbs – and

he did particularly

well against their fast

bowlers, who angled

the ball across him,

rather than going

round the wicket as

they would now. He

would stand and drive

them off either foot

through the off side,

helped by little seam

movement in

Australia or in

England in 1985.

Quick leg-spinners

varied with off-breaks

makes a potent

combination under

any circumstances,

but to do it with a

change of action

which was often

indecipherable to his

own slip fielders: that

was the unique skill of

Barnes. He was not

rivalled until the

doosra bowlers

appeared – and were

banned. Barnes could

even make the new

ball swerve and grip in

Australian conditions,

and he took 106

wickets at 21 in a

mere 20 Ashes Tests.

Nobody has had a finer

all-round Test series against

Australia – or indeed against

anyone else anywhere ever?

• than Flintoff did in the vintage

summer of 2005. Michael

Vaughan sounded the trumpet

and Flintoff led the charge, the

dominant figure in a series

against a side packed with

great cricketers, compiling 402

runs off only 542 balls, and

taking 24 wickets.

In an era before wicketkeeper-

batsmen became fashionable,

then the norm, Knott rescued

many an England innings and

averaged 32.98 against

Australia, as well as

popularising the sweep. He was

also regarded without much

dispute as the best of all

wicketkeepers, or at least

English ones. He will be needed

here in particular to keep

wicket to Derek Underwood.

Another batsman from the

high-scoring era between the

World Wars who was not

distracted by white-ball cricket.

He set the bar – 905 runs in the

1928-29 Ashes – which Don

Bradman raised higher, and

scored nine hundreds against

Australia, second only to

Hobbs. He could also bowl both

medium pace and off-spin, and

was England’s finest slip fielder

in the time before the modern

post-Packer era.

He kept himself for the oldest

enemy, being in some ways

more Aussie than the Aussies.

Great match-winning centuries

• such as his 149 not out at
  Headingley and 118 at Old
  Trafford in 1981 – were followed
  by match-winning spells, as at
  Edgbaston in 1981, and the 1985
  series. Nobody has taken more
  wickets against Australia than
  his 148 at 27. Inspiring at
  second slip too.

The fast bowler played most of

his 21 Tests against Australia on

the most batting-friendly

pitches ever – and still took 64

Ashes wickets at 29, and won

three of the four series he

played in. Above all was the

Bodyline series of 1932-33,

when he took 33 wickets at 19,

in spite of breaking his foot in

the last match of the series and

his Test career. He also made

the highest score achieved by

an England nightwatchman, 98,

to that point.

As a medium-paced left-arm

spinner – he bowled at a similar

speed to Barnes – he delivered

8,000 balls in Tests against

Australia and conceded only

2,770 runs: that is 2.07 runs per

over. Accuracy and control or

what? England’s orthodox

spinners have traditionally had

a hard time in Australia, even

Jim Laker, but “Deadly” found a

way, by grinding batsmen

down. He finished up taking

more than 50 Ashes wickets

both home and away.

1. Sir Jack Hobbs

England career 1908-30

Tests 61. Runs 5,410. Ave 56.94

4. Walter Hammond

England career 1927-47

Tests 85. Runs 7,249. Ave 58.45. Wickets 83. Ave 37.80

3. Sir Leonard Hutton (capt)

England career 1937-55

Tests 79. Runs 6,971. Ave 56.67

6. Sir Ian Botham

England career 1977-92

Tests 102. Runs 5,200. Ave 33.54.

Wickets 383. Ave 28.40

8. Alan Knott

England career 1967-81

Tests 95. Runs 4,839. Ave 32.75.

Catches 250. Stumpings 19

11. Derek Underwood

England career 1966-82

Tests 86. Wickets 297. Ave 25.83

2. Herbert Sutcliffe

England career 1924-35

Tests 54. Runs 4,555. Ave 60.73

5. David Gower

England career 1978-92

Tests 117. Runs 8,231. Ave 44.25

10. Sydney Barnes^

England career 1901-14

Tests 27. Wickets 189. Ave 16.43

7. Andrew Flintoff

England career 1998-2009

Tests 79. Runs 3,845. Ave 31.77.

Wickets 226. Ave 32.78

9. Harold Larwood

England career 1926-33

Tests 21. Wickets 78. Ave 28.35

e

d and

e

top.

ustralia

us test

n, and

more

s 4 1

osing

One.

too.

• 30
  .Ave 56.9 4

played

the World

he age that

conducive

but still, an

f 66 against

made him

of the

nning sides

9 28-29 and

n the first

obbs’s

partner. Sir

ook makes a

se to rival

with his 766

e 2010 -11

t he

less than

other

ies.

bert Sutcliffe

d career 1924-35

4. Runs 4,555. Ave 60 .7 33

arm

similar

ivered

nst

only

uns per

rol or

x

ly had

even

ound a

n

king

kets

wood

6 -82

9 7. Ave 25.83

Qui

d a finer

eries against

deed against

ywhere ever?

did in the vintage

5. Michael

ed the trumpet

the charge, the

e in a series

acked with

, compiling 402

2 balls, and

ts.

10

Eng

Tes

ns 3 ,8 45. Ave 3131 .7 77.

. Ave 32.7 8

Ashes home and away.

6. Sir

England c

Te s t s 10 2

Wickets 3

ht the

• he
  es
  with
  ond
  and
  rly

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS