Australia famously stole the Ashes in 1936-37 after losing the first two matches and England have won a series three times in this country after going one down. This time the stand probably has to be made in the second Test starting at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow.
If it is, this could be another of those series that will rank among all the other vintages, but first England have to haul themselves back from the consequences of being “an insipid, overawed, spineless rabble” in the first three days of the series, according to the chief cricket writer of The Australian. A bit overblown, perhaps, but not far short of the truth.
To attract a more generous response, England’s best course must be the one taken that allowed Australia to dominate in Brisbane: score 600 and bowl accurately. If they do the first part of the job, the second will seem much easier, but the need to keep greater control in the field is such an obvious conclusion from the first Test that the inclusion of Monty Panesar should be a formality.
Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff, who faces perhaps the acid test here of his ability to inspire as a leader, may not see it that way. Tim May took five for nine in the second innings when Australia were beaten in Adelaide in 1993, the famous one-run defeat by West Indies, and Colin “Funky” Miller took ten wickets in a match, also against West Indies, in 2000.
Finger spinners, however, have seldom won Test matches in Adelaide over recent years, especially since the date of the Test was put forward in the late 1990s. It was swing with the new ball for Matthew Hoggard and James Anderson that gave England the early advantage in the warm-up match against South Australia and if Anderson had not bowled so short so often in Brisbane, he might have been guaranteed a second chance to re-establish a place in the England attack.
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That he did not makes Panesar the safer bet and it is also just as likely that his ability to turn and bounce the ball on a sun-worn pitch — as it will be from the fourth day onwards at least — will be as dangerous as anything that Anderson or Sajid Mahmood could achieve by reverse swing.
Mahmood, however, is highly regarded by Fletcher and the two sixes that he hit against South Australia over the longest straight boundaries in world cricket will not have counted against his chances if Anderson’s inconsistency in Brisbane is to cost him his place. “You’ve got to bat in depth — that’s the right way,” the England coach reiterated before England’s intensive three-hour practice session yesterday. “They [Australia] haven’t picked [Stuart] MacGill because they don’t want to move [Adam] Gilchrist to six and [Shane] Warne to seven. We have to have batters that bat down to No 8 at least.”
In the end, both teams may be unchanged, but final decisions will be left until the pitch has been assessed for its moisture content tomorrow morning after a thorough watering by the experienced curator, Les Burdett, yesterday. The bad news for England is that in the past few seasons the Adelaide Oval has become almost as fertile a ground for Australian success as the Gabba.
The good, perhaps, is that Glenn McGrath did not bowl in the nets yesterday. He will play — “We’d have to cut his foot off to stop him,” Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, said — but his sore left heel would probably emasculate him to some extent if England can bat with the necessary patience to get long partnerships going on what should be a comfortable batting pitch once it has dried out.
Neither Ponting nor any of Australia’s selectors has made a secret of the disappointment that Shane Watson’s hamstring injury has altered the intended balance of the team. One of the firm Australian conclusions from the 2005 Ashes series was that England had an advantage in having a fifth bowler, especially when he was an allrounder of Flintoff’s class. Without Watson, the part-time bowlers, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke, may be needed, as Ponting admitted.
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“Both first innings are going to be important,” he said. “It won’t be so easy in the second innings.”
Since Adelaide Tests were switched from their traditional time of year in middle to late January, in 1998, Australia have won seven out of eight matches and they have lost only one in the past 11. The exception was the extraordinary match three seasons ago when India won by four wickets after Australia had made 556 in the first innings of the match.
Rahul Dravid’s superlative batting enabled India to reach a fourth-innings target of 233, but it was the fact that Ajit Agarkar began to swing the ball in the second innings that turned the match after India had come close to parity on first innings.
Swing tends to come and go on this ground, much as the weather will swing from its present heavy dry heat to the more comfortable temperatures of less than 30C (85F) expected at the weekend.
About a fifth of the crowds of 32,000 who have booked all the tickets for the first four days in advance will be supporting England. There has been heightened aggression on the field — Geraint Jones, in particular, was given a verbal roasting close to the wicket when he batted in Brisbane.
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Australia have won eight Tests in succession, but against England the win in Brisbane was only their second in the past seven Tests between the two.
There is hope for Flintoff and his men but no more time to be wasted if they are to unveil their best cricket. In particular, the senior figures — Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Hoggard, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen — need to assert themselves. Their Australia counterparts already have.
TEAMS
Australia (from): R T Ponting (Tasmania, captain), J L Langer (Western Australia), M L Hayden (Queensland), D R Martyn (Western Australia), M E Hussey (Western Australia), M J Clarke (New South Wales), A C Gilchrist (Western Australia), S K Warne (Victoria), S R Clark (New South Wales), B Lee (New South Wales), G D McGrath (New South Wales), S Tait (South Australia), M Johnson (Queensland).
England (from): A Flintoff (Lancashire, captain), A J Strauss (Middlesex), A N Cook (Essex), I R Bell (Warwickshire), P J Collingwood (Durham), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), G O Jones (Kent), A F Giles (Warwickshire), S I Mahmood (Lancashire), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire), S J Harmison (Durham), J M Anderson (Lancashire), M S Panesar (Northamptonshire).
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Umpires: S A Bucknor (West Indies) and R E Koertzen (South Africa).
Match referee: J Crowe (New Zealand).
Weather: 24C (75C), sunny spells with a chance of light showers.
Television: Sky Sports 1, midnight tonight (live coverage from 12.30am); highlights 11.30am-2pm, Sky Sports 2, 7.30pm-10pm.
Radio 4 (198 LW): Live coverage.