Aussies Have The Arsenal In Their Bowling To Win The Urn

Derek Pringle looks at the Lord’s pitch for the inaugural Test against Ireland and fears the worst for the England batsman in the Ashes

If you believe all the talk bouncing around, the destination of the Ashes could be down to who copes best on a series of sporty pitches following England’s remarkable 143run win over Ireland and the Graeme Hick XII’s five-wicket win over the Brad Haddin XII, as Australia warmed up with a match against kith and kin at the Ageas Bowl.

Joe Root, England’s captain, was quick to condemn the pitch at Lord’s for the Ireland Test, suggesting that his team do not want to play on surfaces that offer the bowlers so much. If that is the case, how does he propose to win the Ashes? If pitches are flat, flat, flat there is surely only one winner, unless Archer plays all five Tests and takes 30 wickets. Only then is it likely to be England.

That is because the Aussie pace bowlers pack more heft than England’s in benign conditions. Aside from Archer, their main trident of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins has more pace and aggression than their opponents. They also possess a better spinner than England in Nathan Lyon, but for the purposes of this piece it is the pace men and their likelihood of succeeding in conditions where their forebears have failed for the past 18 years, that will be discussed.

Yes, that’s right, Australia have not won an Ashes series in England since 2001 so why should their pace and aggression succeed now when predecessors plying something similar did not?