A handy, brief shortlist of the cricketers who might conceivably have an impact on the series
Andy Zaltzman08-Jul-2015England have been a Test team on the up since the 2013-14 megadebacle. Unfortunately they have also been a Test team on the down on several occasions during that time. The overall incline/decline: slightly up. They can be brilliant and awful, and often are within the same series (and, it should be noted, a brilliant-awful cocktail was sufficient to win the 2009 Ashes). If they are to regain The Urn Of Sacred Destiny, however, they will need their key players to perform regularly at their best or close to their best.Key players
Alastair Cook’s recent batting has suggested a return to his period of dominance. But if there is one team that knows how to exploit Cook’s frailties, it is Australia. The England skipper has averaged below 30 in four of his five Ashes series (and above 120 in the other, when Cook gave a masterclass in purposeful accumulation and Australia gave a masterclass in how not to exploit any potential Cook frailties). Whether or not his seemingly re-solidified technique stands up to the scrutiny of the Australian attack could be absolutely crucial. If Cook fails, the form of his opening partner Adam Lyth (who looked both very promising and slightly vulnerable against New Zealand) could be absolutely crucial.Gary Ballance’s recent struggles suggest a technical weakness that could be ruthlessly exposed by Australia’s high pace and high class. His overall Test record suggests a player who should be able to adjust, overcome and flourish. His performance looks set to be absolutely crucial. In 2013, Ian Bell had one of the greatest series by any England batsman ever, fully justifying his Sledgehammer Of Eternal Justice sobriquet. Since then he has been unspectacular, with outbreaks of slump. His attempt to rediscover his 2013 self could be absolutely crucial.Australia dominated Joe Root for much of 2013, and almost all of 2013-14. Since then, he has fast become a statistical leviathan and fully established himself as England’s finest all-round batsman. He has the skill, temperament and flexibility to defend, build and attack. His battle with Australia could be absolutely crucial to the outcome of the series.Ben Stokes has the ability to turn matches, with bat and ball. Particularly with the bat. But he has also shown vulnerabilities, with bat and ball. Particularly with the bat. Can he prove himself in his first home Ashes? The answer could be absolutely crucial.Jos Buttler has shown the ability and willingness both to knuckle down and bat within himself, and to explode in more familiar Buttlerian style. Whether Australia can snuff him out could be absolutely crucial. Moeen Ali has essentially been learning to be a Test offspinner on the job. Australia targeted the ailing Graeme Swann with brutal ruthlessness in 2013-14; can Moeen withstand a similar onslaught? He could be England’s best-ever No. 8, and a strategically vital exploiter of left-armers’ footmarks; or he could be an exposed liability. Either way, he is absolutely crucial to England’s hopes.Stuart Broad has a good recent record, albeit with few of the stratospheric peaks that one characterised his bowling. Broad Scepticism, however, remains an oddly, tenaciously healthy branch of cricketing philosophy in certain parts of the crickosphere. If he can be the bowler of The Oval in 2009 and Durham in 2013, even if only once or twice in the series, he could be absolutely crucial.
In the 2013-14 series Mitchell Johnson ran through England like an undercooked pork through a nursing home full of delicately stomached pensioners
Mark Wood has shown the potential be a point of incisive difference in England’s attack. Still inexperienced but rapid and combative, he could be absolutely crucial. James Anderson’s record against Australia has been patchy but he has made crucial contributions on several occasions. He is the bowler most likely to undermine Warner and/or Smith, and, as such, is absolutely crucial.A late entrant to the series can often have a major impact. The stupidly-still-uncapped Adil Rashid, a revivified Steven Finn, or even an injury-, form-, or result-induced bolter such as Ryan Sidebottom or Mark Footitt could turn out in the end to be absolutely crucial.Australia key players
If I had to pick 11 or 12 players who hold the key to Australia’s prospects, they would include the following 13, in no order of preference:David Warner, one of the most prodigious products of 21st-century cricket’s changing landscapes, is capable of shaping any innings, match and series. Whether or not England can restrain this absolutely crucial component of the Australian recent strategy and successes could be absolutely crucial.Chris Rogers has colossal experience of playing in England dating back to a stint early in his career with the Roman Sixth Legion, but this series marks the end of his belated Baggy Greendom. If he can regularly blunt Anderson and Broad, he could prove to be an absolutely crucial factor.This is not to suggest that Steven Smith needs protection from the new ball. It is merely a fact that all batsmen are more vulnerable when the ball is new. Two years ago Smith seemed to be regarded as a technical quirkfest of largely scientific interest, and a symptom of Australian decline. He now appears on an immovable course to being one of the finest and most influential cricketers of his era, blessed with prodigious hands, granite will and an other-worldly assurance. He might not have pulled up many trees in his early years in Tests. Now he is deforesting international cricket like an unlicensed Amazonian logging company. He is absolutely crucial in this series.The fortunes of captain Michael Clarke, diminished by injuries but still a fine batsman, could of course be absolutely crucial. His leadership, on and off the field, in what could be his defining series, will also be important; and if the series becomes close, it could be absolutely crucial.The aged newcomer and county-cricket veteran Adam Voges has rapidly become an absolutely crucial part of this Australian team, while allrounder Shane Watson, by turns tautly uncertain and blazingly destructive with the bat, is more likely to be absolutely crucial as a bowler. He has not been a major wicket-taker, with only 20 scalps at an average of 46 in his last 27 Tests, but he has in that time maintained an economy rate of 2.4. With Ryan Harris, absolutely crucially, gone, Watson’s ability to provide Harrisian control (even if without the giant-shouldered paceman’s incisiveness), could transpire to be even more absolutely crucial.Watson: the new Harris, minus the gnarly looks and the ability to effect breakthroughs. So, er, not really•Getty Images Brad Haddin’s performance in 2013-14, when he repeatedly hauled his team from difficulty, was probably the greatest Australian display of digging stuff out of holes since the Gold Rush. Since then, he has averaged 15 in 11 Tests. His ability to regain form, and England’s to sustain his possibly age-related slump, could be absolutely crucial.In that 2013-14 series, Mitchell Johnson ran through England like an undercooked pork through a nursing home full of delicately stomached pensioners. Whether England are able to nullify or moderate his threat, and whether Johnson still has the capacity to bowl like a 1950s nuclear test on a remote Pacific atoll, despite being a couple of years further into his 30s, could be absolutely crucial.His fellow left-arm thunderboltmonger, Mitchell Starc, fresh from a strong series in the West Indies and probably the finest World Cup an individual bowler has ever compiled, should be entering his prime. Whether he can enter that prime during the Ashes, in the Test arena in which he has enjoyed only fitful success, could be absolutely crucial.Josh Hazlewood, the apparent result of several years in a secret research laboratory containing Glenn McGrath’s DNA and some mad Swiss scientists, has the appearance of a bowler who will irritate the living aubergines out of England fans for the next 10 years. That said, he is a Test novice in English conditions, and even the great McGrath struggled when he first played Test cricket in England. For one match (2 for 149, Edgbaston 1997). Before becoming an unstoppable destroyer for the rest of his career (85 wickets at 18.0 in his 13 other Tests in England). Hazlewood could even prove to be the most absolutely crucial of the many absolutely crucial players in this series.Australia’s No. 1 tweakman, Nathan Lyon, is another very important player for the Australians. Can he provide both respite for his pace attack and continuing threat to the batsmen? His answer to that question, as unveiled over the next seven weeks, could be absolutely crucial.In most series, personnel changes are inevitable, and if the Marsh Brothers are summoned into action, Mitchell’s ability to turn potential into productivity, and Shaun’s capacity to put his days of wild inconsistency behind him, could be absolutely crucial. Peter Siddle could be asked to step in and play an absolutely crucial role, but is he still as good as he was?Conclusion: there are many players to keep your eyes on in this series. Do enjoy it.Ashes Q&A
Thank you for the questions submitted for the World Exclusive Confectionery Stall Ashes Preview Q&A. If your question has not been replied to, I can only offer the official apologies of everyone at The Confectionery Stall, the entire staff of ESPNcricinfo, the global management of ESPN, and every single employee of the Walt Disney Company. By way of compensation, I will address some of those that did not make it into this blog in the next episode of the Cricket Sadist Hour podcast, with the renowned ESPNcricinfo wordsmith and movie mogul Mr Jarrod Kimber, next week.From @rahul_vaswani: Will Yanis Varoufakis now take over as England fielding coach? Or will Adam Lyth now be the new Greek Finance minister?
It is possible. Varoufakis, the recently resigned former Greek finance minister (or “finance” minister, to give his title its official IMF-endorsed punctuation), amidst his strident views on international economics, is also known to harbour extremely strongly worded misgivings about the make-up and quality of England’s slip cordon. In fact, if you play back a speech he made before the Greek referendum about the rights of people not to have their destinies controlled by the EU-IMF-ECB Troika, it contains clear coded messages suggesting that Lyth should obviously replace Ballance in the slips.
Chris Rogers has colossal experience of playing in England dating back to a stint early in his career with the Roman Sixth Legion
Lyth, conversely, attributed his unsuccessful debut Test to his concern about the unfolding mayhem of the Greek crisis. He would not be the first batsman in Ashes history to be entranced by the mystical fascinations of macroeconomics. Pre-First-World-War Australian stalwart Syd Gregory had a transistor radio sewn into his baggy green cap so he could keep tabs on global share prices while batting and fielding. Kevin Pietersen has a tattoo of American economics pin-up JK Galbraith on his kneecap.From @waqaso10: Which two players had the best rivalry in Ashes history?
Pietersen and Cook.From @renukamendiss: What was @KumarSanga2 really doing in the royal box at Wimbledon grinning like the Cheshire cat?
Sangakkara, rumours suggest, has retired from international cricket in order to pursue a career in mixed-doubles tennis. His grin was shortly after he had persuaded the 1961 Wimbledon women’s champion Angela Mortimer to partner him in this forthcoming US Open. With Sangakkara’s stellar form over the twilight years of his cricket career, and the 83-year-old Mortimer’s wealth of tennis experience, they could be an unbeatable combination. Hang on, wasn’t this Q&A supposed to be about the Ashes? Clear off.From @MrRobertWelton: What is the point of cricket?
There is no point. That is the point.From @MrRobertWelton: And what am I missing out on…?
What? You again? With this Ashes, you will be missing out on a series that could be the most compelling Ashes for 10 years, a festival of attacking, high-risk, all-action (or mostly-action) cricket, an unfurling narrative that will envelope your soul with its manifold twists, shifts and breaks, its various emerging subplots, its personal, collective and visual dramas, as two teams at fascinating stages of regeneration compete at the outer reaches of their talents and competitive spirits. Or, alternatively, you could be missing out on a relatively straightforward Australian Ashes retention.From @sanampreet04: Who’ll be the first to lose their temper – Warner or Anderson (according to stats, or your opinion)?
Statsguru lacks a filter for “runs scored in a strop”, “wickets taken during mid-to-full-level tantrum”, or “catches taken whilst gobbing off at the batsman about something irrelevant”. So the stats cannot help us. Both players may have mellowed. If I had to choose which one of the two is most likely to throw the series’ first full-on feist-out… Warner.From @mikecomn: Is this the 485th or 486th #Ashes2015 preview?
It would have been the 484th, had I written it on time. As it is, I think it is the 637th.From @TomJPenn: Is Steven Smith the most in-form batsman ever going into the Ashes? He’s averaging 102 for the last 12 months I think.
More to the point, a year ago, when India arrived, Kohli had averaged 57 in his previous 18 Tests over more than two years; Pujara 67 in his previous 16 Tests. Both failed. Badly. This is not to say that Smith will fail. But Smith might fail. Personally, I think he will not fail.From @CameronBromby: Top run scorers this series?
Smith (542), and Cook (465). Definitely.From @MattRhys63: When England inevitably lose the series, how long in minutes will it be before the words ‘Kevin Pietersen’ appear on Twittter?
Zero minutes. Those words will already have appeared on Twitter. Possibly in the sentence: “With Johnny Bairstow in such scintillating form, England had no need to even consider Kevin Pietersen as a replacement for the struggling/injured _________ [].”