Left field

Strauss’s side still not England’s best

By John Mehaffey

According to International Cricket Council statistician David Kendix’s calculations, three England sides before Andrew Strauss’s present team would have topped the test world rankings too if the current format had existed.

In reverse chronological order, they are Mike Brearley’s side of 1979-80, Ray Illingworth’s 1970-3 team and the 1955-9 squad led first by Len Hutton then Peter May.

Brearley’s side had the young Ian Botham in his athletic prime when he scythed through opposition sides with quick late swing.

The opposition, though, did not that at stage include the best Australian and West Indies sides who had contracted to play for Kerry Packer’s World Series. England’s 5-1 Ashes win in Australia in 1978-9 was against a virtual second XI.

A similar reservation applies to Illingworth’s men. The 1970-1 Ashes win in Australia was a triumph for a tough professional bunch captained shrewdly and including Geoff Boycott and John Snow at the peak of their powers. But the Australians had just been thumped 4-0 by an undeniably great South African side who were then sent into 22 years of apartheid enforced isolation.

That leaves the 1955-9 England side, who retained the Ashes both away and at home.

Collingwood exit gives England test dilemma

The retirement of Paul Collingwood from England’s test team was beautifully timed, leaving the selectors with the dilemma of who to replace the versatile batsman but with a long time to contemplate the decision and from a pretty lofty perch.

The 34-year-old brought options with the ball and was arguably the team’s best fielder, so although he has struggled with the bat of late whoever steps into the team has some big boots to fill.

The contenders? Batsman Eoin Morgan will fancy his chances, but all rounder Tim Bresnan must be in with a shout on the back of some fine performances in the last two Ashes tests.

Also in the frame are batsmen Ravi Bopara and youthful all-rounder Adil Rashid.

The addition of an all-rounder would bring balance to the side once batsman Ian Bell and wicketkeeper Matt Prior move up a place each in the order. That would leave a tail comprising Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and then the eventual Collingwood replacement.

The counter-argument is that it would put too much pressure on the top six batsmen to score runs, and therefore an out and out batsman should slot in at number six or seven depending on Prior.

After all, while not a prolific run getter, Collingwood was resolute and stubborn at the crease and until recently was a difficult opponent to dismiss.

England close to retaining Ashes but eyes should be on bigger prize

England moved closer to bringing the Ashes back from Australia for the first time in 24 years on Tuesday as they reduced the battered hosts to 169-6 at stumps on day three of the fourth test, needing just four more wickets to wrap up victory and still with a lead of 246.

In all likelihood England will require just three more wickets with Ryan Harris off the field with a stress fracture to his foot and unlikely to be forced to bat in such dire circumstances for the home side.

England would do well to remember that victory, assuming a miracle Australian fightback does not deny them, is a mere stepping stone to potentially greater achievements.

Firstly, the team will want to win the series outright in Sydney next week but more importantly England should have their eyes on becoming the best cricket team in the world.

Sydney will be prove the litmus test of whether or not the players have learnt their lesson from Perth where they were obliterated inside three-and-a-half days having just smashed Australia in Adelaide in the previous test.

This time England will need to keep their focus.

I spoke to Andrew Strauss just before the team headed out to Australia, and what struck me about the man was just how confident and relaxed he was about England’s chances in Australia. Without a hint of arrogance, he told me that England no longer feared Australia. And how he and the rest of his team have delivered on his words.

Oh, what to do about the Colly wobbles

With the fourth test steaming up on us like Santa’s sleigh with an inebriated Rudolf at the helm, time is running out for England to decide on what to do about a problem like Paul Collingwood.

Is it me or does “Brigadier Block” always seem more out of form than in form?

In his last 12 innings since his century against Bangladesh in Chittagong, “Colly” (who still averages a respectable 41.14 in test cricket) has managed to reach double figures in a test innings on only four occasions, passing 50 just once in that time against Pakistan in Nottingham in the summer.

Marcus North (2 centuries, 2 half-centuries in his last 12 innings) was dropped from the Australian team for lesser crimes against cricket.

However, of Collingwood’s four double-figured scores in that period, he racked up 42 in Adelaide in the second and 11 in Perth last week. Two double-figured scores in two test matches, is the Durham blocker hitting a rich vein of form?

The messages coming out the England camp, as always, are that they are backing their man and not only will he keep his place in the team, but also retain his position at number five in the batting order, despite Ian Bell’s prolific form.

Bell averages 71.15 since his recall during the 2009 Ashes series, and has a lowest score of 53 on this current tour of Australia.

England take day one honours in Perth

England won the first day honours in the third Ashes test to the delight of their ‘Barmy Army’, bowling Australia out for 268 and reaching 29 without loss before the close of play.

Australia’s tail wagged hard to get the hosts to respectability and  their four fast bowlers will be keen to get back into the English batsmen on Friday on a pitch that looks to have plenty of  life in it. Mitchell Johnson’s fine knock of 62 will be a big boost to the Queenslander – a confidence player returning after being dropped for the heavy defeat in Adelaide – and he has plenty to prove with the ball.

Although England’s travelling support in the bars of Perth tonight might not agree, this test is not over yet.

Tim Wimborne’s picture shows the  England fans celebrating the dismissal of Phillip Hughes.

Doctor’s orders mean changes for Australia but belief is key

Did somebody call for a doctor? A psychiatrist more like! A serious amount of surgery is needed on the Australian cricket team to help them turn around their fortunes in the third Ashes test starting on Thursday.

Australia could make five changes for the Perth test as they shuffle their pack in an attempt to find the magic combination to take 20 English wickets and take advantage of the “Freemantle Doctor” (the term given to the breeze that blows across the WACA ground which can be a useful asset to any bowling attack).

Australia have fallen into the same trap that felled England teams in the past. Lessons haven’t been learnt. Chopping and changing personnel does not guarantee results, as was proved by Australia’s performance in the second test defeat in Adelaide, which was even worse than the final 3 days in Brisbane in the drawn first match.

Belief is the key. England have it. Australia don’t. Since the retirement of their “greats”, Australia no longer face a cowering England side who believe they’re inferior in every department, they’re now confronted with a team that think they know, rightly or wrongly, that they are better than Australia.

For Australia to wrestle back the initiative in this test series, the players need to convince themselves that they can match England pound-for-pound, which judging by the last eight days of test cricket doesn’t look the case but is in fact closer to the truth.

These sides are closely matched. But while England are a team on the rise, Australia are re-grouping and heading in the opposite direction searching in vain for a new path to glory.

Has Ricky Ponting got what it takes to turn his side’s fortunes around?

A test comeback for Warne? Australia are not that desperate

“Bowling, Shane” are not words English batsmen would want to hear ever again, but how would the Australians react to Shane Warne making an astonishing return to answer his nation’s plea for help in the wake of the second test defeat to the ‘Poms’?

To say Warne was England’s primary Ashes tormentor for years and years is an understatement. Every time the leg spinner had the ball in his hand he had the opposition quaking, and even off the pitch he was a handful.

Combined with the equally ruthless Glenn McGrath there has rarely been a finer wicket-making machine.

Now to say the Aussie attack is struggling is another understatement. Wickets rather than runs win matches and without the firepower to strike 20 times in a test match, for the first time since the 1980s the touring side could win the Ashes down under.

Cue calls for Warne’s return, even though he hasn’t played test cricket in four years. The selectors would probably be lambasted if they were to pick him, although the Australian said he was flattered by the talk.

But his selection would make a mockery of the current crop of Australian spinners, Steve Smith, Xavier Doherty and Warne’s tip Michael Beer, who toil away at their profession day in day out.

Imagine England overlooking seamers Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan to fill the injured Stuart Broads’s boots in favour of Andrew Flintoff, who like Warne, has retired from the game.

Downbeat but not out — an England fan at the Ashes

England have been in far worse positions at the end of a first Ashes test in Brisbane. Although being bowled out for 260 is far from ideal Andrew Strauss’s team should believe they are still in this contest.

Having been 197 for four half an hour into the final session of the day and with the Australian bowlers barely able to hit the cut strip, England will rue the batting collapse which saw the last 6 wickets fall for just 63 runs and included a stunning hat trick from Peter Siddle.

The roar of the crowd that accompanied the hat trick and the early dismissal of Strauss was truly breathtaking and had there been a roof on the Gabba it would have been well and truly ripped off.

If there one thing that is disappointing it’s that from my own experience it seems Australian fans only get interested and create a real atmosphere when their team is doing well.

I guess failure is not something they’ve experienced much of recently, but it would be nice to think that should England fightback on day 2 so too will Ausralian supporters.

Downbeat but not down and out, that’s how England fans should be feeling. It’s now time for the bowlers to do their talking and dig their team out of a hole.

David Brett is an equities reporter for Reuters, based in London. He is attending the Ashes as a fan. You can follow him here and on twitter DBsAshestrail.

England are confident but will the Ashes dream go up in smoke again?

With Australia’s current cricket team seemingly keen on proving they can be just as hopeless as any cricket team England produced circa 1990-2000, what better time to go Down Under and watch England defend the Ashes?

I was meant to go four years ago after the epic 2005 series, only to pull out at the last minute and buy a house instead.

Funny thing is, I’d still choose a collapse in the housing market and impending financial meltdown over that soul destroying tour that in the end cost England coach Duncan Fletcher his job.

A couple of friends of mine still went and I remember a call from one of them after the horrendous collapse on the final day of the second test in Adelaide, which saw England snatch defeat from the salivating jaws of victory.

“I want to come home,” my friend said. “The cricket’s rubbish (or something a little bit more fruity) and the beer’s watered down”. Poor fellow, the Aussies even deprived the English of the one thing that could numb the pain.

This time round new captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower have kept the tub-thumping to a minimum and England fans live in hope.

My memories of Ashes tours are generally of deep disappointment and gut wrenching inevitability, with England teams travelling in not in hope of victory, but expectation of defeat.

Monty’s back but England Ashes hopes rest on Swann

England’s commitment to a four-man attack for their Ashes defence in Australia this year has directly influenced the decision to recall left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.

Panesar and Surrey fast bowler Chris Tremlett, another recall, won the two extra bowling places at stake in the 16-man squad named at the Oval on Thursday.

England won the Ashes with a five-man attack in 2005 but, in the absence of a test class all-rounder after Andrew Flintoff’s injury-induced retirement, have preferred this year to play an extra batsman.

* England will be heavily reliant on off-spinner Graeme Swann, the world’s top-ranked spinner, in Australia. Swann, who gives the ball a prodigious tweak for a finger-spinner, has emerged as England’s match-winner after he was called up at the end of 2008.

However, if the unthinkable happens and he is either injured or suffers a calamitous slump in form, Panesar is an obvious replacement.

Panesar lost form and confidence and has not played for England since the first Ashes test last year. He has been accused of lacking subtlety but at his best he is an excellent attacking spinner, who has taken five wickets in a test innings on eight occasions. One of these hauls was at Perth when England were whitewashed in the 2006-7 series. He is currently in good form, taking 52 wickets at 25.69 for his new county Sussex this year.

* Tremlett and Tim Bresnan will be the backups for the first choice England pace trio of James Anderson, Steven Finn and Chris Broad. Like Panesar, Tremlett has successfully switched counties, taking 48 wickets at 20.18 each for Surrey this year.