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Wisden writers predict the England XI for the fifth Test of the 2021/22 Ashes

by Wisden Staff 8 minute read

Four Wisden writers attempt to predict the England XI for the fifth Test of the 2021/22 Ashes.

It’s fast becoming an English tradition. A touring party departs these shores fresh faced and full of optimism, and by the time they reach Sydney for the fifth Test they are bruised, battered, and partly broken. It’s at this point that England scour their squad for options, often extending their search to pretty much any qualifying cricketer in the country. It’s a habit that’s seen them hand out four dead rubber debuts down under since 2010/11, with none of those players, as yet, featuring for England in whites again.

Basically s*** gets weird, and trying to predict the England XI for that fifth and final Test is pretty much an impossible task. And that’s where we come in, with four Wisden writers gazing into their admittedly cloudy crystal balls and pulling out a wide range of contrasting line-ups.

If any of these at all resemble England’s side for the fifth Test of the 2021/22 Ashes, we’ll be shocked. Please, please don’t take this too seriously.

Jo Harman, Wisden Cricket Monthly magazine editor

Dom Sibley
Zak Crawley
Ben Stokes
Joe Root
Ollie Pope
Jos Buttler
Sam Curran
Chris Woakes
Jofra Archer
Ollie Robinson
Matt Parkinson

Ideally it doesn’t play out like this, but, apologies, the memories of the last two Ashes tours are still fresh and painful. Come Sydney, the series is gone, England are walking wounded and short of ideas. Burns, having come unstuck against a barrage of bouncers, makes way, with Crawley – a rare ray of light on the tour – moving up to open.

Stokes, who’s unable to bowl following his marathon 16-over spell in a losing cause at Melbourne, slots in at first drop amid rumours he is set to take on the captaincy at the tour’s conclusion. Sam Curran gets a game because he’s still smiling, Ollie Robinson performs a Boyd Rankin tribute act and Matt Parkinson, who’s not bowled a ball since taking some tap in a warm-up match six weeks earlier, follows in the footsteps of Scott Borthwick and Mason Crane.

Anderson and Broad are spared the indignity of the dead rubber and left to ponder their futures. Broad’s regular appearances in the commentary box spark rumours that a new gig is in the offing. Meanwhile, calls for a radical overhaul of the County Championship gather pace.

Phil Walker, Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief

Zak Crawley
Tom Lammonby
Ollie Pope
Joe Root (c)
Ben Stokes
Jos Buttler
James Bracey (wk)
Craig Overton
Jofra Archer
Adil Rashid
Ollie Robinson

Sydney, January 2022. Are we picking over the carcass yet again? Who knows? Even by our standards, this is mad guesswork. Before the 06/07 series, Richie Benaud told me he fancied England to shade it: they lost 5-0. With three series wins from three, the Poms were favourites going into 13/14: lost 5-0. At least in 2017/18 they were nobody’s favourites, and performed as such: 4-0. In context, that burnished beacon of strangeness, 2010/11 – three innings victories! – turns weirder by the session.

For what it’s worth, I have a feeling that this could finally be the time that this fixture down there, in that kiln, delivers on its excessive promise. Why? Because that middle order of Root, Stokes and Buttler, leaning on one another, will be right in its collective sweet spot. Because Crawley and Pope are surely the batting mainstays of the coming decade. Because Jofra, on those tracks, and Mark Wood, through the air, will have to have a say. After that it gets murkier. I think England will need to out-bore them, bowling dry as a bone, and that’s where a pace group of Anderson, Broad, Woakes, Overton (Craig) and the metronomic Ollie Robinson become so important. (If Jimmy’s fit, by the way, he tours. But the freak can’t play all five, can he? Can he?)

Then we get to the wild punts: I was blown away by Tom Lammonby’s class at the back-end of last summer, he looks like an international opener in waiting, and the kind of beneficiary of a Test debut at the end of a bruising Ashes tour that’s undone a few others ahead of him. Long term, he and Crawley up top looks good to me. James Bracey – a natural ‘second wicketkeeper’ selection – is a well-organised cricketer who plays the quicks well, so he can keep if Buttler needs to bat. (Such is modern cricket, it’s hard to see when Jonny Bairstow – whose record in Australia is good – plays enough red-ball cricket to get back in the reckoning.)

The really glaring issue is who bowls spin, if anyone. (And going by the stats, the ‘if anyone’ element is more worthy of discussion than it first appears.) Still, this is Sydney, where it’s flat and hot and turns a bit, so England will need to play a spinner there. Adil Rashid is England’s best option, but the path from here to Sydney is a mess. Does he really want it? Does his iffy shoulder render it unrealistic anyway? It’s still, however we slice it, one hell of a long shot. But I’m trying to stay optimistic here. I’ve seen three tours of Australia and never gotten close to an England Test match win. That run can’t go on forever. Can it? Don’t answer that.

Yas Rana, Wisden.com head of content

Zak Crawley
Dom Sibley
Ollie Pope
Joe Root (c)
Ben Stokes
Joe Clarke
Jos Buttler (wk)
Sam Curran
Jofra Archer
Ollie Robinson
Olly Stone

I fear that at least one of Burns and Sibley may not emerge from England’s packed 2021 schedule, one that includes nine Tests against India and four against Australia before we get to Sydney. Crawley will eventually move up top with Pope, one of the few England players to emerge from their 4-0 drubbing at the hands of India at the start of the year with any credit, shifting up to three. Root, Stokes and Buttler are joined in the middle-order by Joe Clarke, who topped the run-scoring charts in the domestic summer and immediately looked at home in the side after his debut 67 in defeat at the Gabba.

Jofra Archer and Ollie Robinson – England’s surprise Player of the Series in their 3-2 home victory over India – now form the core of this attack after injuries to Anderson and Broad earlier in the year. Chris Woakes started the series ahead of Sam Curran but after Curran’s Player of the Match all-round display at the MCG kept England’s hopes in the series alive going into the Sydney finale, Curran looks to have finally nailed down his spot in the XI.

There’s no spinner, England haven’t bothered fielding one since their record defeat in Mohali, and after Mark Wood’s fourth-Test injury, Olly Stone plays his first Test in two and a half years. Joe Root has announced that the Sydney Test will be his last as captain. A win there and he’ll be just the second England men’s captain since Gatting to leave Australia with the urn.

Ben Gardner, Wisden.com managing editor

Ben Slater
Tom Lammonby
Ollie Pope
Joe Root (c)
Dan Lawrence
Sam Curran
Jonny Bairstow (wk)
Mason Crane
Olly Stone
Ollie Robinson
Saqib Mahmood

I’ve gone pessimistic here, but then that’s the point, isn’t it? Rory Burns, after a nine-Test working-over by Jasprit Bumrah, is dropped at the end of the 2021 summer, with Ben Slater’s 1,300-run season demanding his selection. Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley each make it four Tests in, looking neither out of their depths nor likely to ton up, and with England 3-0 down (a Root double at Perth stops a whitewash) the England Lions cavalry is called for. Tom Lammonby and Dan Lawrence are the two to have scored the most runs on the concurrent tour, and so earn Test debuts.

After James Anderson tweaks his side four overs into the first Test (again), Ben Stokes is forced to toil through 33 overs as Cameron Green goes big, and he can’t bowl for the rest of the series. By Sydney, he can’t bat either, and Sam Curran, having averaged 33 with a high score of 83, gets a go in the top six. A quick 44 in the chase shows his gumption.

Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes are rotated out and Jofra Archer is overbowled, so England plump for youth, height and pace in varying degrees. Mason Crane adds another dead rubber cap to his tally.

It’s not all bad news though. Jonny Bairstow has spent four Tests stewing as England flounder, and with Jos Buttler finally running out of rope, the Yorkshireman cracks a supreme fourth-innings rage hundred to secure a magnificent consolation win.

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