Section:GDN 1N PaGe:41 Edition Date:190731 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 30/7/2019 19:22 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 31 July 2019 The Guardian •Sport^41
Cricket Ashes countdownFrom bantermime
to concussion subs
19 things to look
for in 2019 Ashes
1
At Edgbaston tomorrow , Test
cricket will be dragged kicking and
screaming into the early 1990s. For
the fi rst time, players with have their
name and number on the back of
their shirts: as in white-ball cricket,
Joe Root will wear No 66, proving the
responsibility of captaincy need not
get in the way of a popular pun.2
After years of vetoes and false
starts, the all-singing, all-
dancing, all-context-providing Test
Championship will begin. Teams
collect points over a two-year cycle,
with the top two playing in the fi nal
in June 2021. There are 120 points
available in each series, so winning
a match in a two-Test series is worth
more (60 points) than if there are
fi ve matches (24 points). But you can
lose points as well.3
The ICC ha s changed its approach
to slow over-rates. Instead of
suspending the captain they will
now hit all 11 players where it really
hurts: in the Test Championship.
If a team win any points during the
match, they will lose two for each
over they were short of the required
rate.4
Once upon a time, Ashes series
in England began in June and
ended in August. The modern
schedule is designed to squeeze as
much as possible from the lemon,
so since 2001 the series have started
in July. This year, for the fi rst time
in Ashes history, the series will start
in August, one day before the startof the Football League season. The
latest-ever start goes hand in hand
with the latest ever fi nish.5
There has only been one Ashes
Test in September, a long-
forgotten match at the Oval in 2005.
This year there will be two, with
the series ending on 16 September.
Given the eccentricities of the
English weather, neither side will
want to be behind going into the
fi nal Test at the Oval.6
If you use a little selective
accounting, Australia are on
their worst Ashes run since the 19th
century. Never mind the fact they
won the last series 4-0; they have
lost their last four series in England,
the fi rst time that has happened
since the 1890s. Their last win was in
2001, when Steve Waugh’s awesome
team brutalised England 4-1.7
Trevor Bayliss’s legacy was
secured on the barmy/balmy
evening of Sunday 14 July 2019. His
record with the Test team has been
mixed and he will leave England’s
Test team pretty much where he
found them: as mid-table mavericks.
He would love to end as he started,
too: Bayliss’s fi rst series was the 3-2
victory over Australia in 2015.8
The inclusion of the Cape Town
Three – David Warner, Steve
Smith and Cameron Bancroft – in
Australia’s Ashes squad should
ensure a summer of bantermime
booing and sandpaper-based props.
Although Warner and Smith played
at the World Cup, this is the fi rst
time they have been available in Test
cricket since their world collapsed in
March 2018.9
The increase in T20 leagues
means this will be the fi rst Ashes
with multiple franchise friendships,which may take the edge off the
traditional enmity. To take a small
example: Jason Roy has played
with Pat Cummins, who has played
with Jos Buttler, who has played
with Steve Smith, who has played
with Jofra Archer, who has played
with Tim Paine, who has played
with Stuart Broad. And, after their
IPL performances for Sunrisers
Hyderabad, Warner and Jonny
Bairstow are still favourites for the
imaginary award for Most Unlikely
Bromance of 2019.10
The back page has never been
held for the announcement
of a vice-captain, yet this year’s are
more noteworthy than usual. Ben
Stokes will be Joe Root’s deputy for
the fi rst time since Bristol, while
Australia’s quest for elite vice-
captaincy has led them to appoint
two: Pat Cummins and Travis
Head. Not that this a guarantee of
selection. Mitchell Marsh was joint
vice-captain when he was dropped
during the Australian summer.11
After a successful trial in
domestic cricket, concussion
substitutes will be used in Test
cricket for the fi rst time. There are
still some grey areas but if a player is
concussed his team will be allowed
a like-for-like replacement approved
by the match referee.12
Diversity was a theme of
England’s World Cup win,
and the Ashes will also refl ect the
multiculturalism of the modern
world. The squads for the fi rst
Test include players born or
raised in Barbados (Jofra Archer),
New Zealand (Ben Stokes), Pakistan
(Usman Khawaja), South Africa
(Marnus Labuschagne, Michael
Neser, Jason Roy) and Zimbabwe
(Sam Curran).13
The second day of the second
Test at Lord’s , starting on
14 August, will be the fi rst Ruth
Strauss Foundation Day. Both
teams will wear red caps, while there
will also be red stumps and special
shirts in support of the foundation
set up after the death of Andrew
Strauss’s wife last December. The
idea is based on the Jane McGrath
Day, which has become a highlight of
the Australian summer.14
Kumar Dharmasena, the
umpire whose decisions
caused such controversy in the
World Cup semi-fi nal and fi nal,
will be back in England for the
fi rst two Tests. He is not the only
one who may fi nd the past being
discussed: Aleem Dar, the umpire
for the fi nal Test in the series, was
in charge when Stuart Broad was
infamously given not out at Trent
Bridge in 2013.15
The Ashes may be won in a
factory in Walthamstow. In
May, after a run-laden start to the
county season, the ECB asked for
a new batch of Duke balls to be
made for the Ashes, similar to those
used in 2017 and 2018. They have a
bigger seam and a heavier lacquer,
which England hope will allow
their seamers to expose Australia’s
fragility against the moving ball.16
The 2015 Ashes, which
lasted 18 days, equalled
the shortest fi ve-Test series of all
time. It might seem like a never-
ending boreathon in comparison to
2019, which has all the necessary
ingredients – fragile batting, high-
class bowling, lively pitches, a ball
that never stops talking – to be a
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it aff air.17
Headingley is indelibly
associated with the Ashes,
scene of immortal performances
from Bradman, Boycott, Botham
(and Willis) and Butcher. It used to
stage a Test in every Ashes series –
but has hosted only one in the past
four series, so there will be almost an
air of novelty when the teams line up
for the third Test.18
England are not the only team
who may play a wicketkeeper
as a specialist batsman. Matthew
Wade has played 141 of his 142
international games as a keeper,
including all 22 of his Tests. But Tim
Paine’s presence as captain and
wicketkeeper means that door is
closed, so Wade – who has been in
extraordinary form with the bat for
the last year or so – seems likely to
take his place as a top-six batsman.19
Ashes series defi ne some
careers – but they end a lot
more. There is usually at least one
emotional farewell, and the 2013-
14 and 2015 series ended multiple
careers at a stroke. The squads for the
fi rst Test include 14 thirtysomethings- the oldest is Jimmy Anderson, who
turned 37 on Tuesday. If England
regain the Ashes, and especially if
he gets the 25 wickets he needed to
reach 600, he may fi nd the fairytale
exit too hard to resist.
Rob Smyth▼ 1981: Ian Botham hooks
at Headlingley, which has
hosted only one Ashes Test
in the last four seriesJoe Root will wear
No 66 for the fi rst
time in a Test▲ England have ordered Duke balls
with a bigg er seam and heavier lacquer▼ Stuart Broad and Jimmy
Anderson will be out to
repeat 2015’s Ashes success
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