The Perth pitch and weather look fine. Australia’s weakened bowling attack is less likely to rip through England in a session than if Patrick Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were playing. During their recent series against India, England tempered their aggression and played a modulated version of the fast-forward style adopted under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. Nathan Lyon might, unlike last year, have some solid bowling to do.
Beau Webster (right) is unlucky to miss out on the first Test team, while Marnus Labuschagne makes his Test return.Credit: Getty Images
Australia’s batting comes with less depth and more questions. The top-order doubts have been well ventilated. The omission of Beau Webster, a proper Test cricketer, is strange, but it has its own logic.
Chairman of selectors George Bailey and coach-selector Andrew McDonald were, like Webster, Sheffield Shield journeymen picked for Australia late in their careers. Like Webster, who has won six of his seven Test matches, they enjoyed winning records as Test cricketers. Bailey won all five he played in, in the 2013-14 Ashes. McDonald won three out of four in 2009, all against the world’s best team, South Africa.
Their reward was being dropped. Now, they’ve done the same to Webster, who is the only really successful selection that this panel has made. Strange. But Test cricket is full of echoes.
Webster may get another chance, especially if the attrition continues. All but one of his teammates are in their thirties. The bell is set to toll.
England have laid a plan and stuck to it. They have curated Jofra Archer’s body for five years in preparation for this series. It may or may not work, but it is a plan.
Australia, on the other hand, are being forced, by injuries and form fluctuations, to make things up as they go along. The bookmakers have Australia as favourites to retain the Ashes, but their guess is as good as ours. Everyone has something to say, but nobody knows a thing.
This is as cheesy as Hollywood, but I’m just hoping for a close series of five-day matches. I’m with Rusty: Test cricket is the only way you want to watch this game, as long as Test cricket is Test cricket.
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“The Test match is between two countries and it’s played over five days. And the idea is that both teams have to bat and bowl twice, and the result will be whatever it is at the end of five days.” That’s how I’d explain it, too.
If, by January 8, we are looking back on an Australian win, it will be a triumph of experience and the final failure of the McCullum experiment.
If we are looking back on an England win, it will be because Australia sent out too many old bodies past their peak.
We might have all the time in the world, but they don’t.
