CAN ENGLAND-WIN BACK THE ASHES?

The aggressive brand of cricket displayed by the English boys in routing the Australian’s at Cardiff in the first test have raised the English hopes of wrestling back the Ashes and in addition giving a fitting reply to the humiliating 5-0 drubbing they took in the last series played down under. The application demonstrated by its batters and the professionalism of its bowlers never gave the Australian’s a sniff of making a comeback.

 The heartening thing is that the win was achieved by the contribution of its young guns be it Joe Root, Ben Stokes,  Jos Buttler and Adam Lyth. No way does the youngster’s contribution undermine Cook’s proactive captaincy or Ian Bell’s stroke full knock in the second innings that helped in taking the game away from the Aussies. Reliving the moments of the first test a question pops in the mind. How such a sudden turnaround is possible?     

To answer it lets cast our attention back to the 2015, 50 over world cup held in Australia and New Zealand we all are aware of the debacle that followed granted it was one day cricket and we are discussing tests here. The shambles in which English cricket found itself forced the ECB to take action and as a result they blooded youngster when New Zealand came for a full series (2 test, 5 one days and 2 T-20’s), the likes of Wood and Lyth were tried and they did not disappoint. But the major shakeup happened when the New Zealand test series ended 1-1 and the selector decided to rest some of the prominent names and gave debuts to a host of untried but deserving youngsters. And what transpired in that five match one day series was something to behold; the sheer arrogance with which they piled on runs, the audacity of chasing down big targets and the willingness with which each man understood and preformed their duties to achieve the teams cause. It’s in the betterment of English cricket that the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Buttler are given enough time to fine tune their game so that in due course they dominate International cricket which they are perfectly capable of doing as the talent is in abundance which will usher English cricket in the new era.

Coming back to our original question, Can England wrestle back the Ashes from the Aussies? Answering this is not simple as we have seen only the first chapter and there are still four more chapters full of twist and turns to unfold. Ask any English cricketer and he will express that winning the Ashes is most converted thing on his resume. Having said that, even if England goes on to lose the series after such a confident start one must keep in mind that it’s the Aussies we are talking about. No doubt winning the series against Australia will propel English cricket to greater heights but one thing which is more important that regaining the Ashes is to retain this carefree and fearless brand of cricket which if nurtured properly augurs well for English cricket in general. So it is imperative that England cricket hold onto this new found edge.

By the time you will read this piece in all probability the second test at Lord’s would have commenced so be prepared for all the chills and spills which only Ashes can serve up.  And be prepared for an exciting summer of cricket as Australian’s will come hard at English as their pride is wounded.