2005. The Ashes. England against Australia. One a great team and the other was confidence personified. One with perhaps two of the greatest bowlers ever to have played the game and the other with a fast bowling attack that will be the envy of any nation. One with a wicket keeper who changed the way how teams look at wicket keeping batsman and the other with an all-rounder who chose the perfect series to announce himself to the world. One who had completely dominated the other for over 15 years and the other who wanted to prove that they were born again. 2005 Ashes perhaps the best ever – The Build Up.
England against Australia for over 120 years have captured the imagination of the wider cricketing world. The Ashes is the preeminent trophy or tournament that is bigger than even the ODI World Cup. For the English spectator, it does not matter whether the England team wins against any other nation but they must always win against Australia. All the recent rivalries like India against Australia or England. England against South Africa or Pakistan or Australia against South Africa, absolutely none of them can even come close to more than hundred years of tradition. The Ashes made even the neutral to follow the games unlike other series. The pull of the Ashes is always irresistible.
How about the Australian lineup?
Among the Ashes, the 2005 series will always be etched in the memory of everyone who had the privilege of watching the series. The sheer adrenaline and excitement that shifted throughout the series was wonderful to watch. Australia were on a roll. They arrived on the shores of England as an all-conquering side. Gladiators whose only job is to knock to stuffing out of the opponents. McGrath and Warne, though they were towards the end of their careers, were nevertheless potent. In Hayden and Ponting, they had batsmen who can decimate any attack that the opponents can conjure. They also had quite accumulators in Langer & Martyn. Added to the above is the effervescent Gilchrist. All the Australians had to do was turn up on the ground and the Ashes will be theirs. It will not be wrong to state that it was Australia’s Ashes to lose.
How the challengers stocked up?
England on the otherhand were quietly confident. Under Michael Vaughan, they had built a steely determination. They had had favourable results the last 2-3 years before the 2005 Ashes. That includes a series win in South Africa against a solid South African team. Michael Vaughan proved to be a captain who could think on his feet. He was certainly inspirational. They had quietly built a solid fast bowling combination. Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff & Simon Jones formed a potent fast bowling attack. Perhaps for the first time in living memory, English cricket had bowlers capable of bowling at 90MPH. Simon Jones excelled with the old ball as well. It is really a shame and a great loss for the game that injuries curtailed Jones’s career well short. If only he had remained fit, he would have been a far more destructive bowler than James Anderson.
Perhaps the best decision taken by the English Cricket Board
Probably the biggest decision the English Cricket Board took just before the Ashes was to have replaced Ian Thorpe with Kevin Pietersen. There were lot of debates before the series that Thorpe must be preferred for his experience and because this is Ashes and England just cannot afford to field an inexperienced player against the best team in the world at the point. At the sametime there were voices of reason for Pietersen to be named in the playing eleven. Pietersen had shown enough of his outrageous talent. As the saying goes, he just did not knock on the door. He was absolutely hammering at the door. Voices grew loud and wider because Pietersen showed in county cricket as well as during the Indian tour of England Lions what he was capable of. The most prominent being no one but the great Shane Warne himself.
“I was one of KP’s leading voices”. Warne continues, “I said England would be silly not to pick KP, watching him bat. I remember one particular game against Sussex maybe we needed 350 [285] to win, KP got a great hundred [a 51-ball 61] and we nearly got home. Remember coming out and saying, ‘Right, come on, England have got to pick Kevin Pietersen’. And I was lucky enough that they did, not because of what I said but it was lucky enough that they picked KP, that he showed what he could do in the one-dayers.”
If Shane Warne says something you better listen. He is one of the greatest minds in the game. In the end, better sense prevailed. Pietersen was preferred over Ian Thorpe. With the benefit of hindsight, it is safe to assume that if Thorpe had played, Australia must have just prevailed.
England were quietly confident
It also underscored the fact that the England team genuinely believed that they can win the series. Such was the confidence that they were prepared to drop an experienced batsman for a rookie who had loads of potential. South Africa’s loss was England’s gain.
Just before the start of the Ashes, there was a short ODI series between these teams with the Bangladesh as the third team. Australia and England played each other 4 times including the final and won one each with 2 including the final, abandoned without a ball bowled. England being confident is onething but will they be able to transfer that confidence onto performance? As things unravelled, England were indeed able to transfer and transcend themselves. I can only speculate what could have happened to the England if Vaughan wasnt troubled by injuries? What if he had continued to lead the side for a longtime?
to be continued……
What do you think about the ECB’s decision to drop Thorpe? Whom did you think would win the 2005 Ashes initially? Please let me know in the comments section.