Ashes Countdown – Previewing the English Summer

It’s the week before the season opener between last summer’s county champions and MCC, so what better a time to preview this summer’s Ashes series.

There is a lot to look forward to for cricket fans back to back Ashes test series, that’s 10 Ashes test matches to play  in the next half of the year.

The Ashes preparations have traditionally been very distracting for the English players, but it seems the shoe is on the other foot now. With Australia’s whitewash 4-0 loss to India, their team is all over the place. Australian cricket has gone through a really desperate spell and only captain Michael Clarke’s batting has given the press writers anything credible to write about.

There are calls for retired past players to rejoin the fold and with Ricky Ponting scoring runs for fun in Sheffield Shield , it must be tempting! Mr Cricket (Mike Hussey) has also been mentioned in line for a recall, but most seasoned Ashes fans know this is customary hype prior to a huge sporting series.

The England batting line is taking shape, despite some worryingly low totals in New Zealand. After all the talk of moving newcomer Joe Root to open the batting, Nick Compton cemented his place in style with two centuries. It’s clear the left/ right hand combination of Cook and Compton is preferred to take the shine off the new ball and Root will have to rely on his bowling all rounder status to earn a test place.

England won’t have any excuses related to players spending time in Indian Premier League and all the focus will be on Kevin Pietersen returning successfully from his knee problems.

Fitness has surely got to be high on the selectors priority list. Australia have their concerns over Michael Clarke’s back, and Vice Captain Shane Watson has been plagued by injury throughout his career.

The order of Ashes test venues has been rejigged this year, which brings an added dimension into play in terms of team selection.

1. TrentBridge
2. Lords
3. Old Trafford
4. Durham
5. Oval

 

We have witnessed the exploits of Andrew Flintoff and Ian Botham, the outstanding fast bowling from Thomson and Lillee, but who of the 2013 Ashes class will be inspired to make Ashes cricket history?

England can retain the Urn if Cook and the management can settle an XI who remain fit throughout the early season and negotiate the early summer return series against a dangerous New Zealand. The bowlers are well equipped to make life difficult for Australian top order and the spin department is also well covered with Swann and Panesar having experienced a taste of Ashes victory on the 2010/11 tour.

Australia are capable of bringing their A game out in English conditions. Several of their squad are well experienced in English conditions. One such talent is Phil Hughes the top order batsman who was widely tipped early on in his career to be a stand out star of the future.

Several other Australian bowlers have served time in English county cricket, including the work horse Peter Siddle, who famously registered an Ashes hatrick during the 2010 Brisbane test. The performances of spinner Nathan Lyon in India shows they have a decent left arm spinner to target Kevin Pietersen.

It’s never wise to write off any Australian sport’s team and it won’t be long before some of the abrasive characters in the team put in top class performances to restore pride and silence the critics.

Which side will you be supporting come that first day of Ashes cricket in Nottingham on July 10^th?

Captain Cook – an unquenchable thirst for runs

We are undergoing the Twenty 20 revolution, Alistair Cook has clearly flourished in an era of bat dominating ball.

He is the youngest batsman to score 7,000 test runs and if he finishes with 15,000 test runs to match Sachin Tendulkar, then he will have answered his critics.

The man affectionately referred to as Captain Cook, he was forced to expand his range of shots and can now pull these out earlier in test innings to dominate weaker bowling attacks.

We can judge him on various levels, but one can’t fail to marvel at his proven powers of concentration. He’s been described as a “Greedy batsman”. To remain at the crease for such sustained periods of time requires a finely tuned batting style and commitment to the cause.

Whereas Mike Atherton and Chris Tavare’s of past generation of England cricketers looked to primarily occupy the crease, twenty 20 openers are swinging from ball one of the innings.

The calibre of test match bowling in tests has arguably deteriorated, since the inception of Twenty 20 cricket. Bowlers have to survive in the shorter format, and are adopting innovative and efficient bowling styles to combat the more destructive batsmen.

As such, the battle between bowler and batsmen has become very one-sided, and modern batsmen also possess larger, heavier bats also. The margins for error are minimal.

 

 

King of Spin reigns over England limited overs team

Ashley Giles is taking over the England limited overs coaching role, and Andy Flower takes on the team director role and retains coaching of the test team.

The former Warwickshire and England ‘King of Spin’ backed Jonathan Trott to play in the final test of the 2009 Ashes test, when there was widespread hype about bringing back Mark Ramprakash or Marcus Trescothick. Trott rewarded this loyalty with a match winning century.

The Flower / Fletcher era has left a great legacy for England. The Zimbabweans approach is refreshingly different and brings  lessons from playing international game in a country beset with war and internal conflict. Zimbabwe’s loss is definitely England’s gain. Duncan Fletcher first instilled the ECB central contracts, allowing international players to rise above the mediocrity of the county game.

In terms of coaching, England’s players have benefitted from Duncan Fletcher’s famous forward press, to cope with the spinning cricket ball. At the time, Michael Vaughan adopted this method, as did many of the English batsmen of the day. Withstanding the occasional dressing room wrangle with Kevin Pietersen, Andy Flower has been instrumental in English victories, which include, 2 Ashes series home and away, World Cup Twenty 20 success, test victories in Sri Lanka, South Africa and India.

Like Andrew Strauss before him,  Flower can have few regrets in relinquishing control of the limited overs team. Increasingly, the shorter format requires freshness of mind and body to withstand the overcrowded international fixture lists. The former Essex man has prioritised his family and can leave with his head held high.

This also frees Flower to prepare the test side for the very real challenge of becoming the first England team to win a series in India since the David Gower’s team won in 1984/85.

England cricket captain on the brink

Today, we’ll hear the outcome of Andrew Strauss and the England leadership.I believe Strauss is going to go, and  few could blame Strauss for handing over the captaincy to the incumbent Alistair Cook, as he’s ripe for media commitments. The England captain must face up to facts that his form at the crease hasn’t been up to his previous high standards and there’s no immediate benefit to signing on for an arduous tour of India.

This situation does illustrate how much IPL cricket factors into the modern player’s thinking. The lures of IPL riches have trapped many an international star, and Pietersen is no different from the Chris Gayle and others. It’s significant that the feel good factor has returned for Kevin Pietersen scoring 163 for Surrey.

My cricket history books, report that this is not an unfamiliar situation, and that there have been numerous disputes between the main player and cricket captain in English cricket.

In the build up to the 1956 Ashes series, off spinner Jim Laker was only going to be selected to play in one test at his home ground, the Oval. The selectors took a U-turn, and brought him in for Old Trafford . He went on to take 19 Australian wickets, in a match famously known as “Laker’s Test”.

Jim Laker later fell out of favour with England captain, Peter May, the details of the disagreement weren’t made available through Twitter.  Captain May kept his head held high, whilst Laker stubbornly fell from grace. A period of 10 years lapsed before he represented an England XI again when he would have been past his bowling prime.

The current dispute is as much about Pietersen’s wounded ego as it is about Strauss and Flower’s inherent distrust of Pietersen’s maverick approach to his place in the dressing room. Most cricket fans acknowledge this dynamic has been instrumental in England’s recent successes. However, England have been dethroned by South Africa in the ICC rankings, and there’s inevitable analysis. I can only hope that Strauss can be persuaded to hang on for the transitional period, to allow English cricket to find a worthy replacement at the top of the order.

A player of Strauss calibre should play a big part in England’s top order to bring on the development of potential openers such as Joe Root into the tough world of Test match cricket. The question remains though whether he has the appetite for the challenge. England’s defence of the Ashes should be a massive factor and motivation but it’s a concern that too much water has past under the bridge .

For an amicable resolution, Pietersen must follow the example set by other English players, Broad and now Eoin Morgan who have pledged their commitment to play test match cricket over IPL next April, May.

Tactical advantage handed to South African

It has been alleged that Kevin Pietersen texted South Africa’s cricketer Dale Steyn, on how best to bowl to Andrew Strauss. The reports from newspaper journalists suggests that Dale Steyn followed the advice, and bowled round the wicket to Andrew Strauss and succesfully removed him in the final test of the summer.

If these allegations are substantiated, South African born Pietersen may have sealed his fate. He’s always been an impetuous cricketer, but recent actions have been ill advised and may cause a premature end to his England career.

Wouldn’t it be sad to never see him play test cricket again? Love or hate him, KP arrived on the international scene with a bang, and went on to popularise the reverse switch hit and trademark his own shot, known as the ‘flamingo’ . A whip shot to the legside, which has proven to be impossible to set fields too.

Pietersen at Headingley  

As I watched Kevin Pietersen score his incredible 149 in the second test match, I was in complete awe as he single handedly destroyed Morne Morkel in an over of short pitched bowling. Memories of the 1998 South Africa versus England test series in which Allan Donald targeted Michael Atherton were brought back to life. Donald perhaps the superior bowler to Morkel, bowled unchanged around the wicket and with deadly accuracy. The difference in styles are pronounced, the opening batsman, Atherton was used to being targeted and relied on solid batting technique to finish unbeaten on 98 not out. Contrast with Pietersen’s innings, as after he had worn down the South African bowlers he came back the following morning, and lasted just two bowls. Kevin Pietersen simply hasn’t consistently stayed at the crease when the team and match situation requires him to.

He now finds himself in adverse conditions, and like Atherton before him, will have to go back to county cricket and learn to let his bat do the talking. In his latest turn out for Surrey, he succombed to the left arm bowling of Liam Dawson, showing that outrageous stroke play won’t always win over a proven solid batting technique.

When the season is over, perhaps Pietersen will reflect on the high points, his mercurial talents taking him to the highest score of the county season for Surrey, and a sublime knock against South Africa in a drawn test match. He would do well to address immediately the sore points of the recent week with England’s management, otherwise his talents will be lost forever to English cricket.

A debt owed to 1990′s test cricketers

This current England side have never fully acknowledged the efforts of their predecessors in the 1990′s in helping them reach number 1 test status. The decade featured few highlights, only glimmers of hope such epitomised by test series victories over South Africa in 1998.

The significance of Atherton standing firm against to Donald, AKA ‘White Lightening’, was an enduring episode as England held onto win a major test series. There weren’t many other series wins in the 1990′s, and the current England team could experience a few more losses than wins in the coming season.

One key factor in England’s cricketers preparing well for the winter tour of India, will be clearing all the bad air that has coloured this South African test series. It’s also going to be a monumental effort for the T20 team to defend their World Cup in Sri Lanka next month. Stuart Broad will need to lead from the front, as there’s no doubt England will be weakened without the services of Kevin Pietersen.

English cricket’s state of play

The third test against South Africa, marks Andrew Strauss’s 100th test and his 50th as captain confirmation if ever it was needed that he’s joined an elite group of cricketers.

It’s amazing how such a  landmark moment and the corresponding performances tend to reflect the characters of the cricketer, and I would cite the 2000 test series against the West Indies, where Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton were playing their 100th test match at Old Trafford. In front of a home crowd, Atherton perhaps wary of the more attacking style of Stewart’s batsmanship played second fiddle. Whereas Stewart delivered what the crowd came for, and registered a century in his 100th test.

Other English batsmen weren’t quite able to seize the day. Graham Thorpe played his 100th test in 2005, against Bangladesh and was dropped for the  incumbent Kevin Pietersen!

The Kevin Pietersen affair

The Kevin Pietersen saga rumbles on and the captain/ coach/ star player triangle is being played out in a very public way. At the heart of the issue seems to be dressing room unity. Coaches nowadays have far greater influence on team spirits, particularly it seems Andy Flower who has played with and against many of the current England team. He has been able to instil a healthy respect from key personnel, based on his appearances for Essex, and also his bravery in standing against oppressive regime in his native Zimabwe. I suspect Pietersen’s ego finds it hard to accept the coaches role in his relationship with captain ‘Straussy’ particularly when he has previously indicated that England’s succesful Ashes victories owed a lot to Pietersen speaking out about Peter Moores as a coach.

Pieteresen is such an outrageously talented batsman that he would do well to follow Flower’s more understated approach to the game and remember that Flower was once ranked number one batsman in the world!

Andrew Strauss captain fantastic and test centurion

Making his test debut in 2004, Strauss suffered the indignity of being run-out by then captain when on course for registering twin centuries in the same test. He clearly would go onto great things, and so it has proved as today, he celebrates his 100th test appearance for England.

Career highlights

2006/07 – Following the whitewash in Australia, Strauss contribution to the series was a single half century and a run of comparitively low scores. He was clearly upset at being usurped to the England captaincy by the ever popular Andrew Flintoff.

Ironically, Strauss has a lot to thank Kevin Pietersen for, as it was Pietersen’s ‘Jerry McGuire’ style mission statement that was the catalyst for England coach Peter Moore being sacked which paved the way for the
Flower/ Strauss coach- captain reign. This would see them ascend the ICC test rankings to number 1.

In 2008, he had been dropped following a run of poor scores, then announced his return to form in New Zealand with 177. Since then he’s never looked back, registering a maiden double hundred last year for Middlesex at Lords.

Batting analysis
Strauss has developed into a fine cricketer. Any dips in batting form are largely due to a technical weakness playing too much on the legside, where he’s more comfortable scoring runs. Opponents have worked out targeting his weakness outside the off stump early in his innings, bringing the slip cordon into play.

Opening the batting

The other leftie, Alistair Cook had a similar weakness but spent a whole winter remodelling his backlift with Graham Gooch and the result, 756 runs and over 35 hours at the crease in Ashes 2011.  Former England great, Geoffrey Boycott still tops the batting averages of English test players playing over 99 tests, but then he always looked out for number 1!

Strauss the champion

Strauss averages in the mid to high 40′s, but more impressive is his win to play ratio. He’s a close second to Michael Vaughan on 51%, Strauss winning 49% of the 99 tests played to date.

Vaughan was a great captain, able to lead from the front with his batting. I remember fondly when he was the only English batsman to take on the Australians in 2002/03 with 633 runs.

The ongoing dispute with Kevin Pietersen shouldn’t colour Strauss 100th test match appearance. He’s simply been at the helm of one of England’s most succesful periods, and it’s significant that he’s remained a calming influence both on and off the field.

The only remaining questions for his career:

1) Will he finish his career as the highest English test centurion of all time, currently sitting on 21 centuries behind Wally Hammond on 22.

2) Will he emulate Alec Stewart and score a century in his 100th test match?

3) Can he find the strength and hunger to lead England in next summer’s Ashes series on English soil, and perhaps succeed Alec Stewart as the most capped English test cricketer?