CRICKET: Both England and Australia will need several fast-bowling options for a busy Ashes schedule due to ageing attacks and recent injury scares.
Veterans James Anderson (left) and Stuart Broad have both been named in the England side for their opening Ashes Test against Australia which gets under way at Edgbaston tomorrow (June 16).
England have named veterans James Anderson and Stuart Broad in their XI for the opening Test which gets under way at Edgbaston tomorrow (June 16).
Australia, who recently won their World Test Championship final against India at The Oval, are on a punishing programme of six Tests in eight weeks.
England earlier this month warmed up for the five-game Ashes with a 10-wicket win against Ireland in a one-off Test at Lord’s.
The hosts boast the two most successful quicks in Test history, but it appears unlikely the pair will both play every match.
Anderson, who will turn 41 during the fifth and final Test, has been the spearhead of the attack for nearly two decades and has formed a potent new-ball combination with Broad, but the Ashes schedule can be particularly tough on fast bowlers.
Modern fitness methods allied to long experience as Test specialists have helped Broad and Anderson keep bowling at an age when most of their predecessors had long retired.
Broad’s 37th birthday is next week, between the first two Tests.
But with the threat of injuries – express quick Jofra Archer is out of the series with an elbow problem and the rapid Mark Wood’s career has been blighted by injuries – Anderson knows England are unlikely to field the same pace attack in every Test.
“I think playing all five is a little bit optimistic, and not just for myself,” said Anderson, who said featuring in three of the games is more realistic.
England will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the 2019 Ashes opener at Edgbaston, where Anderson broke down with a calf injury after bowling just four overs in a match the hosts lost by 251 runs.
Both Anderson and fast-medium seamer Ollie Robinson were rested from the Ireland match to ensure they were fit for Edgbaston following niggling injuries.
Australia, unusually, are being captained by a fast bowler in Pat Cummins, with the 30-year-old confidently predicting: “I’ll be aiming to play all six (Tests).”
‘Fresh, ready to go’
History is threatening to repeat itself for Josh Hazlewood, who missed the start of the 2019 Ashes in Birmingham following an injury lay-off before featuring later in the series.
Four years ago, Australia opted for the slightly slower but remorselessly accurate seamer in Peter Siddle.
It could be a similar story this week, with Scott Boland competing against Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, whose left-arm angle is a real point of difference, for a place in Australia’s attack.
The 34-year-old Boland has taken 33 wickets in just eight Tests at the staggeringly low average of 14.57.
And those figures may mean even the world-class Hazlewood, with 222 wickets from 59 Tests, has to bide his time, with injuries restricting the 32-year-old in recent years.
“No doubt you still want to play every game and it’s hard to sit on the sidelines and watch,” Hazlewood, who missed the WTC final, told the Guardian.
“But potentially if you bowl back-to-back Tests and you bowl 50 overs and you’ve got some of Boland, Starc or myself on the bench, fresh, ready to go ready for the next Test… the guys are more open to it.”
Australia could also call upon Michael Neser, who has been starring for Welsh club Glamorgan in the County Championship, as a potential replacement quick later in the series.
England v Australia: The Ashes explained
The “Ashes” is the name given to the series of Test matches played between England and Australia, generally every two years.
Test matches each last a maximum of five days, with the overall winner of the series presented with a replica of the historic Ashes urn.
Australia are the current holders after winning the 2021/22 edition on home soil.
The upcoming series is the first Ashes contest to be staged in England since the 2019 series ended in a 2-2 draw.
England’s last series victory came in 2015.
The use of the term “Ashes” dates from England’s first home defeat against Australia at The Oval in London in 1882.
Following Australia’s victory, Sporting Times journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks printed a mock obituary of English cricket, saying: “The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”.
A few weeks later, England set off to tour Australia and, after a “social” match near Melbourne on Christmas Eve 1882, English captain Ivo Bligh was given a small terracotta urn as a symbol of the “Ashes” he had sworn to win back.
Standing at little more than 10 centimetres (four inches) tall, the original Ashes urn resides in the Marylebone Cricket Club museum at the famous Lord’s ground in London.
In 1998, Bligh’s 82-year-old daughter-in-law said the urn contains the remains of her mother-in-law’s veil, while others claim it is filled with the ashes of a burnt cricket bail.
Bloody faces and bitter feuds
Few sporting rivalries are fiercer than the Ashes, with battered bodies and bloodied faces all part of more than a century of feuding.
In the 1932/33 “Bodyline” series, England deliberately aimed fast deliveries at Australian batters’ bodies rather than the stumps in the hope they would get out trying to protect themselves.
The aggressive tactic was seen as unsporting, but unrepentant England won the series to the fury of their bruised opponents.
The Ashes has provided some of cricket’s most memorable moments.
The 1981 series was named “Botham’s Ashes” after all-rounder Ian Botham’s feats with bat and ball inspired England to victory.
Australia spinner Shane Warne provided one of the most iconic moments in Ashes history when his incredible “ball of the century” bowled Mike Gatting in 1993.
Arguably the greatest Ashes series was played in 2005 when England, powered by Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, beat an Australia team packed with stars.
The tone for that series – England’s first Ashes triumph since 1986/87 – was set early in the first Test when Steve Harmison’s bouncer left Australia batsman Ricky Ponting with blood streaming down his face.
