One of the charms of Test cricket is that a match scheduled to last five days allows for the possibility of a fightback, even if a team falls behind early on.
However, it was a charm completely lacking from the Ashes this year, which ended with England winning the five-match series 3-2 despite Australia’s innings and 46-run win in the concluding Test at The Oval on Sunday.
This Ashes equaled in length the shortest five-Test series of modern times of 18 days that took place when England played the West Indies in 2000.
The fifth day was not needed in any of the matches, with the nearest thing to a “close” contest being England’s 169-run win in the series opener in Cardiff.
Prior to the series, both sides spoke about their intention to play aggressive cricket.
It became such an ingrained mantra, it was almost as if the thought of playing out a maiden filled some batsmen with dread.
Australia rectified their approach at The Oval, where their opening boundary did not arrive until the 15th over of the match and they still piled up 481, but by then it was too late to save the Ashes.
“Full credit to England — they won the key moments in this series, they outplayed us,” Australia coach Darren Lehmann said.
“We had four of the five top wicket-takers and three of the four top run-scorers, but we didn’t win the key moments,” the former Australia batsman said.
The green-tinged pitch at Trent Bridge reopened the debate about just how much home advantage is acceptable.
While the English climate produces surfaces that are generally more conducive to swing and seam bowling than many places elsewhere in the world, there was a feeling following Australia’s 405-run win in the second Test on a docile pitch at Lord’s of groundsmen being instructed to prepare wickets that aided horizontal movement.
The irony was that it needed an Australian, in new England coach Trevor Bayliss, to point this out.
However, while the WACA pitch in Perth might be quicker than many around the world, at least visiting teams know what they are going to get, whereas the suspicion remains that wickets in England can too often be made to order.
“I think Test cricket is a five-day battle... The fans of the game deserve to see a really good contest for five days,” retiring Australia captain Michael Clarke said. “I think the past three Test matches have not been that case.”
Unsurprisingly, Bayliss disagreed, saying that playing the moving ball was a skill in itself.
“You look at the five games, if the second team had batted like the first we would have had five-day games,” Bayliss said. “The wicket didn’t change in 10 minutes from one innings to the next and it certainly didn’t change in an hour and a half at Trent Bridge. I think the wickets, with a bit in them, is different to what these guys are used to.”
“I think the batters have to learn to fight a little bit harder... Just to watch batsmen belting the ball everywhere, to me, is not what Test cricket is about,” he said.
For the limited-overs series, England have rested Joe Root, with the star batsman left out of the squads for both the upcoming lone Twenty20 international and five one-day internationals.
Root, the Ashes player of the series after his 460 runs played a central role in England’s win, has been a key player in all three formats in recent times. However, with England facing tough Test series away to Pakistan and South Africa later this year, England’s selectors have given the 24-year-old a break from international duty.Also omitted are senior bowlers James Anderson, out with a side strain, and Stuart Broad.
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