The next Ashes series is only 18 months away. Here’s what Australia must do to win again |
Suitcases packed, hotel rooms vacated, sore heads and red eyes hidden under baseball caps and behind sunglasses, winners and losers alike face the same post-series exodus.
England will scarper with tails between legs, hoping to dodge an inquisition from the press when they land at Heathrow. Some will find an isolated tropical island where English is not the first language, some will shed the whites of Test cricket and begin preparations for the smash and bash of the upcoming T20 World Cup.
The dogs bark and the caravan moves on. Most of England’s batters will have little problem adapting to the game’s shortest form. But their Test team will be in flux from now until forever if they continue to pursue an inflexible philosophy. It has not worked against a team that met force with cleverness in conditions they understand.
The tourists have not faced meaningful consequences for their failures, and they will continue to underachieve until they do. The nice thing for us is that we don’t give a tinker’s sledge about what England do. There are, however, some issues to be sorted with the home team.
The magnificence of the 4-1 result is not to be trifled with. The absence of first-choice bowlers, including the captain, and the snakes and ladders feel to the batting order presented problems that were solved on the fly. Travis Head was superb, but it was never part of the plan that he would open the batting. Nathan Lyon’s soft tissue injury led to the most baffling selections since 1888, but Australia got away with it – just – because England made too many dopey batting decisions.
Usman Khawaja was listed as opener for the first Test in Perth and finished the series – and his career – at a concrete No.5. Cameron Green was feted before the first Test and failed almost all the way through to the fifth, falling to the worst shot of the series – quite a feat........