From seam to swing – not to forget the frightful pace that gets us ducking and weaving from behind our sofas – fast bowlers occupy their own echelon in Ashes lore.
One hundred and forty-eight years of rivalry means there is no shortage of fodder for fans to gush over.
Jeff ‘Thommo’ Thomson and Dennis Lillee ruled the 1970s and early 1980s, helping to coin the 1975 witty ditty ‘Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, if Lillee don’t get ya, Thommo must.’
The Ashes have given us bowling performances we can revisit again and again and again.
Bob Willis’ rousing 8-43 at Headingley in 1981. Glenn McGrath’s rampant opening burst of 5-2 in 31 balls at Lord’s in 2005. Stuart Broad’s blink-and-you-miss-it 8-15 at Trent Bridge in 2015.
And of course, there was the moustachioed menace, Mitchell Johnson, who rocked the England team like a hurricane in 2013/2014 with multiple spells on his way to 37 wickets.
‘Pace like fire’ was the popular tagline for the West Indies‘ storied fast-bowling stocks, including the likes of Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner.
But if there is one nation that has matched that legacy, it is the old enemy.
Carrying that baton for the last eight years, in their own way, has been Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
Meanwhile their opponents find themselves in the midst of an identity crisis. Long regarded as the home of the ‘classical swing bowler’, England now dabbles in the dark arts, moving away from what it is to be a quintessential English seamer.
An SOS from director of cricket Robert Key to the domestic scene in 2024 means England go into this winter with an assortment of bowlers looking to give their best rendition of ‘pace like fire’.
In the last piece of the series, Cricket Paper writer Mohan Harihar looks at the fast-bowling stocks of Australia and England.
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England’s ‘un-English’ attack is at the mercy of Lady Luck
Back in 2005, Michael Vaughan’s side landed on a winning four-pronged combination – Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones – that married brutishness with finesse.
It was lightning in a bottle, sadly, and something England have never managed to get close to replicating.
But on that occasion, there was something unconventional – something ‘un-English’ – about the bowling combination. The sameness that had plagued England attacks for so long – honest right-arm swingers in the early-80mph range – was absent.
Five years later in 2010/2011, when man-mountain Chris Tremlett and rough-around-the-edges Steven Finn complemented James Anderson, the English fast-bowling group again unveiled an unfamiliar dimension.
In 2005, albeit at home, they toppled a legacy team of giants. In 2010/2011, they regained the Urn for the first time since 1986/1987.
But in both those campaigns, bowlers with points of difference featured in the majority of the series; in the case of 2005, only Jones missed a Test while the rest of the attack featured in all five.
Ahead of the English summer of 2024, Rob Key issued a simple plea for all county seamers, words which proved to be the catalyst for James Anderson’s retirement.
Key said: ‘I don’t care how many wickets you take. I want to know how hard you are running in, how hard you are hitting the pitch and are you able to sustain pace at 85-88mph.’
On paper, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson – likely England’s first-choice attack at Perth – possess these attributes, ones which coincidentally mirror Flintoff, Hoggard, Harmison and Jones two decades ago.
But England continue to be bedeviled by injuries with all Ashes hopefuls, first-string or otherwise, routinely finding themselves in the sickbay.
Archer has only just returned to Test cricket after four years. Wood has been out of cricket since March of this year following knee surgery to repair ligament damage to his left knee.
The captain himself, Stokes, has endured three of his biggest setbacks.
In 2024, he sustained two recurring left hamstring tears which eventually required surgery. This summer he gritted his teeth in frustration after suffering a grade-three muscle tear around his bowling shoulder, an injury which forced him to sit out of the final Test against India.
The bench strength has not fared better.
Over the last few years Josh Tongue (right pectoral, hamstring), Olly Stone (right knee) and Chris Woakes (left shoulder) have all succumbed to misfortune on the field.
Jamie Overton, who has a history of back stress fractures, has opted to take an indefinite break from red-ball cricket, stating: “At this stage of my career across a 12-month calendar, it is no longer possible to commit to all formats at every level, both physically and mentally”.
Despite the laundry list of injuries the bowlers in contention exude something rather ‘un-English’ yet again, but collective fitness woes threaten to derail a campaign two years in the making.
There is venom to strike even if runs may flow this winter. No longer will they rely on the economy of Anderson who, for all of his accolades, managed only one five-wicket haul in Australia in 21 Tests.
The quartet of Archer, Wood, Atkinson and Stokes possesses enormous potency, but the rest will struggle to reach this bar should injuries curtail Archer’s or Wood’s participation.
Australia’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse cast gargantuan shadow on the next cabs
Pat Cummins (309 wickets), Josh Hazlewood (295 wickets) and Mitchell Starc (402 wickets) form a trio worthy of being in the discussion of the greatest fast-bowling attack of all time, not least for their longevity.
Since the 2021/2022 Ashes series, they have also had Victorian Scott Boland to aid their cause, a man who has 62 wickets from 14 matches at a paltry average of 16.53; to-date his appearances in the Baggy Green have been periodical much like sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.
Collectively, Australia’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have towered over their opposition over the last four years.
And when they need a hand, they ask Nathan Lyon – 562 wickets only to his name – to chip in.
It is an all-round attack that never relies on one individual to get the job done, a conundrum India faced over the winter in the Border-Gavaskar trophy where all hopes rested on Jasprit Bumrah’s shoulders.
Notably in the 2017-2018 Ashes series, Australia’s awesome foursome finished as the top four leading wickettakers with an equal share of the spoils for Cummins (23), Starc (22), Hazlewood (21) and Lyon (21).
When this Australian side wins, the wickets are usually shared around. For the opposition, this means there is no weak link to target.
It is the ever-reliable blueprint that has seen them suffocate opposition time and time again when Australia are on top, and wrestle back momentum when they are behind, especially at home.
However, this could be put to the test for the first time since 2017, when Cummins returned to the side after six years out battling a plethora of back injuries.
News of a ‘hot spot’ in Cummins’ back – a ‘lumbar bone stress’ – pricked the ears of English fans during the week as doubts over his participation in the upcoming Ashes series came to light.
‘There still feels like there’s plenty of time [until the first Ashes Test]. But there’s full expectation that Pat will be right to go come the first Test’, Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey said.
Captain Cummins echoed Bailey’s sentiments, reinforcing he has no intention to watch on as a spectator: ‘That would be devastating, so we’ll be doing everything we can to try to be right for that and try to make a few decisions a little bit closer, but confident.
‘Do the rehab right and give it a good crack.’
The skipper also suggested given the magnitude of the series – perhaps the final chapter for this highly decorated team – he is open to approaching his rehabilitation a little differently.
‘It’s a big Ashes series. It doesn’t get much bigger, so I think you’re willing to take a few risks and be a little bit aggressive to try and play as much Test [cricket] as you can.
‘At this stage of my career I feel like I can probably get up to speed a bit quicker than when I was 18 or 19.
‘Back then you probably feel like you need to play a few [Sheffield] Shield games or one-dayers. I’m pretty confident even if I don’t get a chance to play a Shield game, I can get up to speed.’
With over 75 days still to go until the first Test at Perth, Cummins’ and Bailey’s optimism may not be misplaced.
In the event Cummins is unable to take part in all five Tests, Australia will be forced to entertain ‘rest and rotation’ which would limit the captain’s presence to special guest appearances; this would also mean deputy Steven Smith will step in as captain.
‘Rest and rotation’ is something Bailey admitted has always been on the table but not one that has ever come to pass – more a doffing off his cap to the impeccable fitness of Australia’s fast-bowling trio.
Were this to transpire for Cummins, or any of the big three, it means Australia will be forced to look under the bonnet and learn a bit more about the next generation.
Brendan Doggett, Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett and Michael Neser will most likely be the first in line to get a crack at the Baggy Green. Among them, only Neser has represented the Test side before with his last appearance coming against the West Indies at Adelaide in 2022.
Thirty-one-year-old Doggett was a travelling reserve for the World Test Championship final in June and was in the squad for the tour of the Caribbean before being sent home with a hip injury.
Australia might have names to choose from, but the drop-off in skill from the big three will be like a red rag to a bull for Stokes’ Bazballers who rarely need a second invitation to attack.
Survival of the fittest
For the soon-to-be tourists, much will depend on the four many expect to be the team’s first-choice: Archer, Wood, Atkinson and Stokes.
Atkinson’s biggest concern will be his ability to sustain pace and bite as the series wears on. In his debut summer, he demonstrated ‘oomph’ upfront but considerably less ‘oomph’ each subsequent time he marked his run-up.
He battled to maintain his first-spell speeds suggesting an immaturity when it came to Test-match bowling fitness, something no amount of time pumping iron in the gym can solve.
For those enamoured with the numerical data, ESPNCricinfo’s Vithushan Ehantharajah confirmed that his average speed on debut was 85.89mph. At the time England were seeing out 2024 in Hamilton, his fastest delivery of that match was only 84.0mph.
Even in his comeback game this summer at The Oval, Atkinson’s four spells on day one followed the same worrying trend, as confirmed by Ehantharajah: 85.6mph (six overs), 84.8mph (six overs), 84.0mph (five overs) and 82.0mph (two overs).
In the big picture, the 27-year-old is still fresh-faced as far as his career is concerned. But given his consistent performances since coming into the side, and injuries plaguing his peers, Stokes will hope that Atkinson dismantles the training wheels and becomes the real deal Down Under.
For Archer, Wood and Stokes, the focus is simple. They must, in some combination, take the field for three or more games; Christmas will come early for them if all three meet this target.
Archer and Wood are England’s two nuclear missiles waiting to be launched together on juicy Australian pitches. It is the dream scenario for the England fan, but something that might just be too good to be true in the end.
Since Archer’s Test debut at Lord’s in August 2019 – over six years ago – he and Wood have only played together in the same Test once. This came in a loss, coincidentally, against the West Indies at Southampton in 2020 – the infamous COVID summer played behind closed doors.
And the only time Archer, Wood and Stokes have played together? The same match.
Keeping these three together fit and firing will be England’s biggest challenge. In concept it is a mouthwatering dish. But in reality, it is a main course which may not satisfy the appetites of ravenous England fans given it has forever been a delicacy.
In contrast to England, Australia’s big three – Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc – have played together 38 times and enjoyed considerable success (won 23, lost 10, drawn 5).
Over and above their undeniable skill, it has been the ability of Australia’s fast-bowling trinity (along with Lyon and now Boland) to stick together series after series that has made Australia unrelenting.
In a five-Test series where the series may hang in the balance more than once, the influence of the big guns at the sharp end of the campaign will decide the fate of The Ashes.
England have considerable injury issues to contend with. But in the wake of Cummins’ ‘hot spot’, the reigning Ashes holders will also be tested for the first time in almost a decade.
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