Lord's Cries Out For A Hero Like Hedley

LORD’S may be perhaps the most storied ground in the world cricket – but for England in the Ashes it offers an almost unprecedented tale of woe.

- Richard Edwards

Only once in the last century did England win a Test against their greatest foe at the Home of Cricket, with Hedley Verity’s 15 wickets in 1934 providing the joy of triumph that no England team experienced again until 75 years later.

Even by English cricket’s standards, that’s a drought and a half. Back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2013 went some small way to redressing a truly dismal record but heavy defeat at Australian hands in 2015 brought back some painful memories.

Now, as world cricket’s two oldest rivals prepare to head to St John’s Wood again, Joe Root’s side will be under pressure to prove that their loss four years ago was a blip rather than a return to the bad old days, when the sight of most famous ground in the world caused England to wilt and handed their Aussie opponents all the motivation they needed to thump them.

It was witnessed again this summer when the eventual World Cup winners were dismantled by the men in green and gold in the group stages. An omen? Or a one-off result in a format that has rarely been so far removed from the five day game?

England will hope it’s the latter, while Australia will hope to remind MCC members why they have lorded it so often over the hosts in NW8.