Our man by the urn, The Worm, continues to cast his all-seeing eye over the seesawing Ashes series...
Was that it? A measly two and a half days and a result effectively decided within the first two hours. Even by the standards of English cricket collapses, this fourth test was one hell of a submission. There is a crushing finality about winning the toss, batting first and totalling 102; as the plain speaking Geoffrey Boycott would have it: “that were rubbish”.
Strauss should have been given out to the first ball of the match and clearly had his mind on things other than his batting. Perhaps this can be explained by the chaos of Friday morning or the proximity of an Ashes series victory and the impact that would have on his CV. With the openers’ failure to perform we were shown the awesome potential of England’s line-up to lose a series over the course of one session, the second time they may have attained such a grand achievement in a calendar year. The collapse was discernible by the loss of the second wicket, Bopara’s feeble backfoot push to Hussey, the very nature of the shot pronouncing absolute submission.
England’s collective frailty returns and at the worst possible moment, the business end of the series. Leaving the mental failing aside, how can this be explained in cricketing terms? Discipline (our old friend from Cardiff) and shot selection are again central.
Australia finally selected Stuart Clark, the metronomic stock-ball good-line bowler to complement Hilfenhaus. Add Siddle bowling short and aggressive, Johnson mixing it up, and overcast conditions allowing for a bit of swing and it made for a tricky first morning, one where the batsman’s greatest asset is a confident leave. But in this era of Twenty20 cricket and four-runs-an-over Tests, England’s batsmen could not suppress their instincts and man after man found himself caught behind square playing at balls they had no need to play. Cricketers, and batsmen in particular, are meant to be cerebral, to be able to think about their game and adapt. Failing that, the coaching staff need to be smarter and louder.
The Worm is reminded of that bullied feeling of 2006/7, but this time it feels so self-inflicted. England entered the match on the verge of series victory, three days later and that thought is inconceivable. England’s backroom is talking up the importance of keeping calm, but the panic is both understandable and necessary as we approach endgame. It tells us that this was not simply a defeat, it was a monumental shift of authority. So much was lost in this fourth test, and paramount to the anxiety is the high middle-order of Bopara, Bell and Collingwood. There seems no plausible way that the Oval test can be won with that line-up and this mindset.
Bopara simply has to be dropped. He was selected to play his shots, score freely and take the total forward but he cannot do that right now and he won’t at the Oval. He’s had seven goes in this series, that’s enough. An Ashes series often takes a victim – think Craig White or Geraint Jones. Bopara is broken, this was clear in his diffident first innings dismissal and his unfortunate, prophetic golden duck in the second. He can be fixed, but not this season. The match at the Oval is too big.
So who do the selectors turn to? Blood a test novice like Trott? Call on the other man in the wings, Rob Key? Wrong-foot us all and pick for the future with young Craig Keiswetter? Or do they bow to media pressure and turn to county cricket’s classiest bat, averaging 100 in 14 innings, Mark Ramprakash. The Worm must admit to having heard Ramprakash’s name mentioned in this context as far back as Cardiff but dismissed the idea as fanciful. Since then, with Michael Schumacher returning to a Grand Prix car and A-Ha all set to play the O2 arena, comebacks are becoming routine. There will be those who argue that it serves no purpose to bring back a 40 year-old for one final bow, that it will be to the detriment of the team’s progress. This is nonsense because for games of this magnitude you don’t select for next year, you pick the best XI available to you at this point in time. Ramprakash, who plays his county cricket at the Oval, has nothing to lose and this gives him the advantage of playing without the pressure to retain his spot. His comparative test failure was put down to his response to pressure although it is only fair to reflect that 90s test cricket was overrun with wonderful, world-class pace attacks. There are no young Englishmen with his calibre, and winning an Ashes series with him will benefit English cricket far more than blooding Jonathan Trott and watching him fail. It seems that Marcus Trescothick would turn down the chance of an international swansong, so we shall avoid going down that avenue.
The Worm is sure that the selectors will not be so bold and fully expects Trott to be the change to the team, another makeshift number three. Media clamour seems to spark the selectors into giving the people what they don’t want. England’s complacency is now to their detriment and they should be listening to the panic within English cricket, panic that stems from losing so much ground in such a short space of time. Bringing experience and solidity into the high middle-order will not guarantee victory, but it would make for a more level final game.
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