Thinking-outside-the-box captaincy
Keira Knightley may not spring immediately to mind as a source of inspiration for Ben Stokes’s captaincy but her tactics for dealing with the paparazzi at the height of her fame recalled some of Stokes’s early forays with the armband.
Knightley recently explained to Graham Norton that she refused to have anyone follow her, so would stand stock still for hours at a time until the photographers got bored or, better, weirded out. “I do think I freaked them out, they were like: ‘I don’t understand what’s happening here.’”
When Brydon Carse came out to bat at No 3 in England’s successful chase in Melbourne, it drew gasps from the crowd in the stadium and saw a spike in social media and texts from those watching at home. “That’s not … Is that Brydon Carse?”
Carse made only six runs, largely playing like a man at a silent disco who has his headset tuned to thrash metal. The experiment was unsuccessful by dint of the scorebook but it did allow Jacob Bethell a few more minutes before arriving out in the middle and punctured the tension a little.
There was logic. Carse is an aggressive batter with two first-class centuries (that’s two more than Bethell … ) and he can clear the boundary rope – only Harry Brook has hit more sixes for England than Carse in this series. A few meaty swipes would have taken a decent chunk out of England’s remaining target of 126.
It was also refreshing to see Stokes get back to the funky captaincy that was such a hallmark of his early time in charge. More of this would be welcome in Sydney, especially if Cricket Australia orders up a flat pitch in order to try to recoup lost funds from the pair of two-day finishes in this series.
Remember Stokes setting those umbrella fields in Pakistan and opting to kick off a Test with the spin of Jack Leach? Leach became the first England spinner to open the bowling on day one of a Test match for 101 years. Three years later and England’s specialist spinner, Shoaib Bashir, has gone unselected in this series and is unlikely to be seen in Sydney, never mind opening the bowling. Stokes’s early tenure was all washing-machines-in-the-pub freak-’em-out energy and ideas but, understandably, some of that has gone missing on this tour. That was most notable when Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland were batting England out of the game in Brisbane – Stokes looked like he had run out of plans as the game drifted into Australia’s hands. Which brings us to …
Pitch it up!
England have bowled too short and wide on this tour, with Stokes hamstrung by bowlers who have at times seemed unable to execute simple plans, namely hammer the top-of-off-stump line and length that has served Australia’s bowlers so well. That Starc-Boland partnership in Brisbane was the nadir, with Carse’s pitch map resembling some sort of nihilistic experiment in Brownian motion as the man Stokes has backed all series struggled to pitch consecutive deliveries within the same postcode.
But Carse was a different beast in Melbourne, albeit on a surface that assisted above and beyond. His off-bail-trimming wicket of Travis Head was a beauty and should be the blueprint for him heading into Sydney. A replica of that delivery will cause problems for any left-hander in the Aussie lineup.
Carse is the series’ second-highest wicket taker with 19 to Starc’s 26 but if you compare the impact both men have had on the series those numbers can be accused of telling fibs. In Sydney, Carse has one more opportunity to repay the faith shown in him by his captain throughout the tour. Can he expand on his newfound rhythm and put something tangible behind the somewhat stat-padded numbers of his series thus far?
Give Tongue the new ball
After taking 19 wickets in three Tests against India in the summer, Josh Tongue once again showed how he can significantly affect games by picking up the player-of-the-match award for his seven wickets in Melbourne. The Nottinghamshire seamer’s omission from the first two Tests of the series appears to be a significant blunder with the benefit of hindsight but is perhaps indicative that he wasn’t seen as a main figure in this squad. He should be now. Stokes should give him the new ball in Sydney and back him to make an impact once again.
Crawley to bat long
In many ways, Zak Crawley’s entire Test career has been built on the back of the 77 off 100 balls he scored in Sydney on the last Ashes tour. Crawley hit 14 fours and looked extremely comfortable against high pace and bounce. He’s been a shoo-in for this series ever since, despite a feast-or-famine record that has locked his Test average in the low 30s. The Sydney innings four years ago could also be seen as symbolic of Crawley’s Test career in that it looked good while it lasted but he failed to convert it into a meaningful score that affected the result of the game. Crawley is England’s highest scorer of the series and, despite the pair he bagged in Perth, has looked in good nick since. Sydney would be a fitting place for his Test career to fire into its next phase … or fizzle out once and for all.
Potts to be an Aussie copycat
With Gus Atkinson missing the final Test with a hamstring injury picked up in Melbourne, it opens the door for Matthew Potts. A redoubtable bowler built in the Fred Trueman-approved way – that is to say strong of heart and backside – the Durham seamer impressed with seven wickets on his Test debut at Lord’s in the first Test of the Stokes and Brendon McCullum era but has been seen only sporadically for his 10 Test matches across three years since.
He hasn’t played under Stokes for more than a year but is the closest England have to Boland and Michael Neser. After carrying the drinks for two months, he’ll be champing at the bit to take his opportunity in Sydney. Jamie Smith standing up to the stumps with Potts nibbling it around off a length may not have been on most people’s Ashes bingo card for Sydney, but by this stage of proceedings, if you can’t beat them more than once in 15 years, you may as well join them.
