As cricket's oldest rivalry, the one between England and Australia for the Ashes urn, kicked off on November 25th, we expect a tough, intense battle on Australian soil. The reason being the resurgence of the English team and Australia,on the decline of late, who were impregnable, only two years ago, but crippled by the retirements of their yesteryear stalwarts like Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Glen Mcgrath among others.
Of late,The Aussies have been lacklusture with the loss of an all-conquering generation of players. The recent test series in India where the home team managed to comfortably overhaul the Aussies is a case in point.
At the end of that series, batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's observation hardly came as a surprise. He said "I think England have a good chance of retaining the Ashes.The key members for England will be Pietersen and Morgan, and in the bowling department Swann. Then after that you have the experience of Andrew Strauss, so they can do something special in Australia."
A man to man comparison clearly tips the scales heavily in England's favor, even without being carried away by their recent success wave. The English batsmen look really assured, especially in the top order and the recent decision to even drop the effervescent Kevin Peitersen in the recently concluded series against Pakistan shows the quality in depth that the visitors have at their disposal.
On the other hand,Aussies have a decent battery of pace bowlers who can ruffle quite a few feathers
of any batting line up but statistics over the past year show that the pace bowlers' have been struggling for consistency and will go into the Test series with talented, but unbalanced bowling set-up.
In the spin department, the English will walk in as the better team with Graeme Swann, who is arguably one of the best off spinners at the moment and his proven record against Australia will come to handy.
The Aussies have dropped their first- choice spinner, Nathan Hauritz and will have an untested debutant in the form of Xavier Doherty.
England's Ashes fortunes in the since the mid-2000's though, has been a mixed bag. The last time the poms played on Australian soil, they were hammered 5-0, which again, was sandwiched between two suave, Andrew Flintoff-inspired wins at home.
This is a clear indication of how taxing the demands are to win a series in Australia. It is easier said than done.
The last time England managed to win down under, it was way back in 1985. Even in the recent past, only
South Africa under the leadership of Graeme Smith manged to win in 2008.
What is it that makes so difficult for teams in Australia that they buckle in the dusty outbacks of the southern hemisphere?
Australian 'Mental disintegration'- The Aussies' constant bickering and sledging have had many a player develop a complex and by that, we are talking about the crowds as well which culminated into a then-familiar pattern of capitulation, as , Former English cricketer Angus Frazer points out "It is worse for bowlers because, invariably, it is they who field on the boundary. For hour after hour "fair dinkum Aussies" will abuse you from behind the advertising boards. They will tell you "you're S***", "you're a loser", "you're a busted flush", "you've no heart" and "you're weak as Pi**". They will ask: "What's your wife up to while your here, mate?" and inform you "I hear she cooks a bloody good breakfast". In isolation the stick is easy to take but after a while it gets you down."
It must be noted here that England currently hold the Ashes and even a draw here would mean that the poms retain the holy 'urn'.What perhaps works against the current English team at the moment is the lack of experience playing in Australian conditions.
The British media have been singing praises about how the English are a well-oiled machine this time around and if the recently concluded 1st test match is anything to go by, the Poms are well prepared to match the
Aussies and get the better of them. Top order batsmen Alistair Cook and Jon Trott made mincemeat of the Australian bowling attack but to measure the team's improvement, we will have to wait till the 3rd or the fourth test match to arrive at a concrete conclusion
No comments:
Post a Comment