There’s a week-long break between men’s Ashes Tests, but with the first instalment of the women’s Ashes inbetween, and the constant daily news cycle churning, there’s little let-up in the action.
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The women’s Test at Trent Bridge, a rare long-format game and an even rarer five-dayer in women’s cricket, is set to be a pearler, while the war of words between Ollie Robinson and the entirety of Australia has only heated up.
The proclamations keep on coming. James Anderson is not happy (when is he ever?) Zak Crawley has been looking into his crystal ball, while Ricky Ponting has made quite the revelation.
The Women’s Ashes starts with a bang
A five-day Test, at a proper Test ground, with a record number of tickets sold – it promised to be some occasion, and the players lived up to it. Debutant Lauren Filer broke records with the ball, becoming, according to CricViz, England Women’s fastest Test bowler, while Ellyse Perry extended her absurd Test record, but fell one run short of her century.
Listen to the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast’s episode after day one of the Ashes.
Rehan Ahmed added to the men’s Ashes squad
Moeen Ali might still play, but his blistered finger means England need back-up. Enter Rehan Ahmed, 18 years old, a leg-spinner, and with a five-for on Test debut. It’s a punchy move – if he plays, he’ll be the youngest cricketer in the history of the men’s Ashes – but then that’s the route England always take.
Ollie Robinson lets loose
Ollie Robinson has never shied from a bit of braggadocio, and, signed up as a columnist for Wisden.com, he didn’t disappoint. “We were surprised to see Australia so defensive from ball one,” he wrote. “You just don’t see the Australians cautious and on the back foot like that. As soon as we saw the field for that first over, we felt like we had a hold on them.” Round Two is eagerly awaited.
Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden hit back
Robinson has caught the attention of any number of ex-Aussie pros, with the two most noteworthy being Ricky Ponting, because he’s usually the most even-handed of the lot, and Matthew Hayden, because, well, he’s the Dos.
Ponting described Robinson as a “slow learner”. “He’ll learn pretty quickly that if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, then you want to be able to back it up with your skills,” he said on the ICC Review podcast.
Hayden, meanwhile, fully let fly, saying he’s a forgettable cricketer. “A fast bowler that is bowling 124 (kph) nude nuts and he’s got a mouth from the south,” he said on SENQ Breakfast. “Someone like him, you can just go, ‘Brother, I’m coming at ya’. Davey Warner can do that, right. He can just say, ‘You’re bowling 120km…’.” Grab the popcorn (and the nude nuts) because this one is going to carry on for a while.
Justin Langer lets loose the junk-yard dogs of war
Justin Langer, naturally, has also had his say. His Telegraph column is actually a reasonable offering. Sledging is a reality of Test cricket, he pointed out, and the moment, and the response, in his view, are all part of Ashes theatre, even if Robinson was “a silly boy” for stoking the flames afterwards. But in assessing the backlash, there were some classic Langerisms. “Like a junk-yard dog, we protect our own,” he said. Woof woof.
Zak Crawley predicts a big England win
Away from Robbo, there’s still been plenty to chew on. Zak Crawley steers clear of the social media stuff anyway, and has apparently spent the extra time working on his powers of clairvoyance. “I think we’ll win,” he told Times Radio of the Lord’s Test. “I think it’ll suit us a bit more, that pitch. So I think we’ll win by, I don’t know, 150 runs?” Is there any point even playing the game at this point? Or shall we pack up, move onto Headingley, and spend the free time talking about Robinson?
James Anderson isn’t happy with the Edgbaston pitch
Edgbaston might have witnessed a classic Test match, but England’s bowlers had one key grumble: The pitch, which was on the slow side and offered little in the way of lateral movement. “That pitch was like kryptonite for me,” he wrote for The Telegraph. “There was not much swing, no reverse swing, no seam movement, no bounce and no pace. I’ve tried over the years to hone my skills so I can bowl in any conditions but everything I tried made no difference. I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle. If all the pitches are like that I’m done in the Ashes series.”
Could we have witnessed Punterball?
Ponting really is enjoying himself over in England. Brendon McCullum, that attitude-changing, neologising England head coach, wouldn’t be in post if he hadn’t said ‘Thanks but no thanks’ first, as he told Guerilla Cricket: “I actually got asked before Brendon took the job, there you go. You guys might be the first to find that out — but I did take some calls from Robert Key as soon as he took over that job.”
