One more year and one more Ashes is done and dusted. Australia swept to an easy win. England were nowhere found in the entire series. It was a complete one-sided affair. For the 3rd consecutive series, England were humiliated in Australia. 0-5 in 2013, 0-4 in 2017 and now 0-4 in 2021. All said and done, what did we learn about Ashes?
The difference between the teams is enormous
Australia is now leading England with a whopping 40 wins. In other words, Australia have won 40 tests more than England. Ever since the Aldermann inspired triumph in 1989, it has mostly been one way street. Till then, the Australian and English wins were more or less equal. Since then, Australia have absolutely skyrocketed. Successive series wins like 3-0, 4-0, 4-1 etc have catapulted Australia into the stratosphere. The difference is so massive that it will be impossible for England to catchup to Australia in the near future.
If England wins all the tests and Australia win none, it will still take 8 years for England to match Australia. We all know that that is not going to happen. For some reason, Australia are always competitive in England than England are in Australia. Even when Australia were at their lowest ebb, they still managed to win a couple of tests including a live test. Whereas England, except for the 2011 series, never managed to win more than one test. In most cases, they didn’t even manage to win one.
Moreover, Australia have the tendency to rebound quickly following a series of retirement. We saw that in the 1980s and now in 2000s. Though they may still struggle to win in Asia, in the rest of the world, they are capable of competing on equal footing. England, though they remain one of the 3 teams to have won atleast one series in every country, were never world beaters. Not even when they were ranked number one. They struggle to replace some of the good players. I am sure they will not find a replacement for Root once he retires. This makes the task of England matching Australia much more difficult.
The series itself
As for the series itself, it is difficult to gauge Australia’s progress. They were up against a weak and completely devoid of belief English side. Moreover, England were without a couple of their fastest bowlers in Archer and Stone. Australia were not exactly brimming with confidence what with the Tim Paine saga and the Justin Langer controversy. Nevertheless, they still had an incredible array of fast bowlers and batsmen who are capable of aggressive cricket as well as piling on the runs.
Marnus and Smith averaged more than 60. Something that world teams will envy. Warner in Australia is a devastating batsman. Travis Head chose this series to come off age with rollicking hundreds. Bowlers did what they were expected to do with Boland who at the age of 32, is now having the most economical average amongst all the bowlers. So much so that the absence of Hazlewood after the first test did not matter at all. The one good thing for Australia is that they did not depend on Cummins alone for wickets. Starc and Boland too contributed significantly.
Despite all of these, have Australia really progressed? I do not think so. They were the favourites before the Ashes and they won the Ashes. The winning margin in each game was slightly above expectation. Nonetheless, I do not see any real progress. In the one game where they had to beat both time, the pitch and the English dourness, they came up short. Currently, Australia are ranked number one but I expect that to go down once the Asian leg is completed and more importantly after the 2024 Ashes in England.
England have a lot to do
England need to find a set of batsmen. Currently, they lack batsmen who can not only play for time but can also score big daddy hundreds. Root is the only international class batsman. Certain players must be replaced permanently like Buttler, Hameed. Unfortunately, the county scene does not seem to be ripe with batsmen who can replace the ones playing for England. Hameed is the prime example. He was plucked from nowhere, put on a plane to Australia and he was like a fish out of the water. Just a few months ago, he wasn’t even considered for England. It clearly showed that England did not plan properly for the tour.
Root is really unlucky. Right after the Ashes shellacking, England will travel to West Indies. England have traditionally struggled on those shores. Even the last series was won by West Indies. In this day and age, only 2 teams lose to West Indies repeatedly and England is among them.
Ashes perhaps is given too much importance
Is the Ashes overrated? It probably is. None of the series with the exception of 2-3 series over the last 33 years have been competitive. Having said that, Ashes still captures the imagination of all the cricket fans worldwide. It is the only series that even a neutral watches keenly. Broadcasters earn in the millions. The ECB and CA laugh all the way to the bank. The competitive nature of the teams really does not matter. For an average Australian or English fan, success in Ashes is what matters. Until that passion is there, Ashes will generate huge revenue.
Conclusion to what did we learn about Ashes?
Well not much. Come 2024, most of us will be glued to the TV to watch the next set of games between these traditional rivals. Competitive or uncompetitive, this is one series that every cricket fan around the world would like to talk, discuss and fight about. Above all, the broadcasters, ECB & CA gets to earn an enormous amount of money from this series and they will want to milk the cow as long as it takes. Ofcourse, we all want the series to be between two equals but that will remain in the firm hands of ECB. If they are not able to develop a team of high quality players, this series will suffer.
Other Ashes blogs can be read here, here, here, here and here.
