Australia took the spoils to go 1-0 in the five-match series with a two-wicket victory that, for the third consecutive Ashes series, sees them take a series lead into the second game.
That defeat for England in Edgbaston was only their third from their 13 matches under the Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes regime. Their unique adopted approach of ultra-positive batting almost paid off once again, only for them to be foiled by lower-order Aussie batters Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in the last hour of play on day five.
It was instead the tactics of captain Stokes, such as a bold day one declaration when Joe Root was scoring freely, that instead attracted negative attention.
The wicket at Edgbaston was a batters’ dream, with 1,334 runs scored in the game and many of the 36 wickets to fall going down to unforced batting errors rather than the bowler getting the better of the batter.
Returning wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow believes that the Lord’s pitch, which is expected to be a fraction faster, will be more favourable to the way England play their game compared to that of Australia.
Bairstow himself had a poor game behind the stumps, having dropped a few chances and missing a couple of easy stumpings, however, he made amends by making 78 runs in his first innings and will most likely be carded to start the Lord’s Test.
With the bat, England’s ‘Bazball’ batting saw them score 393/8 from just 78 overs (5.03rpo) in their first innings and 273 all out from 66.2 overs (4.07rpo) in their second.
There will be no change or holding back at Lord’s, with coach McCullum assuring the press after the Edgbaston loss that “they will stick to the same strategy, which is great because we’ll go a little harder”.
There was much to be pleased with for the England coach who saw opener Zak Crawley repay his faith in him with a first-innings half-century, including a four off the first ball of the series, and ex-skipper Joe Root once again showing why he is one the world’s best batters by holding the England batting together with knocks of 118* and 46.
In the bowling department, Test cricket’s third highest-ever wicket-taker Jimmy Anderson (686) had a below-par Test by his standards returning match figures of 1/109.
Unfortunately, England’s injury worries continued during the week with young leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed drafted into the squad as a replacement for Moeen Ali, who has now been officially replaced for the match by Josh Tongue.
Australia were evidently overjoyed by taking the spoils in the first match. However, there are concerns in the camp already as to the form of some of their key batters. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschgane, both ranked in the top six of the ICC top batters table, aggregated just 35 runs from their four innings.
Thankfully, Usman Khawaja made up for them with excellent knocks of 141 and 65 that more than helped his team to victory. Khawaja’s fellow opener David Warner is also struggling for form, making nine in his first innings before being dismissed for the 15th time in an Ashes Test by Stuart Broad with 36 in his second innings.
In the bowling discipline, just as it was for the England attack, it was hard graft for the Aussie bowlers on the slow, flat Edgbaston strip. After much deliberation by the Aussie selectors, southpaw swing bowler Mitchell Starc was omitted from the team for new kid on the block Scott Boland to take to the field.
However, the English batters were not letting Boland have his own way as he did on their recent tour down under where Boland claimed 21 wickets for 172 runs at 8.19 apiece.
He finished with match figures of 2/147 and could make way for Starc if the Australians opt to rotate their quicks throughout a long series.
As for injuries in the Aussie camp, Marnus Labuschagne was struck on the arm during an optional net practice at Lord’s on Saturday, but was soon up and running again.
Assistant coach Michael di Venuto stated afterwards that he “kept on batting so must’ve been ok.
"He’s got a finger that has copped a couple of knocks, but he said he felt better because the blood started to flow through.” It would certainly take a lot to keep Labuschagne off a cricket field!
Players to watch: Ben Stokes is brewing up for a big innings after a long stretch of starts. He hasn’t made a Test fifty in 14 innings but has failed to make double figures in just three of those.
Stokes is likely to face the Aussies’ key spinner Nathan Lyon, who finished the first Test with match figures of 8/229. Lyon has dismissed Stokes nine times from 30 innings, but at a costly price of 45 runs per wicket.
Stat attack:
- England have either won (W11) or lost (L4) all 15 Test matches played in the Stokes-McCullum era.
- Australia have lost just two Ashes Tests at Lord’s since World War II (W11, D9).
- The average first-innings score across the last ten Lord’s Tests is just 197, with only two teams winning by batting first (England v Ireland in 2019 and India v England in 2021).
- England have won just two of their last six Tests at Lord’s, beginning with a 2019 draw with Australia (D2, L2).
- Marnus Labuschagne has been dismissed three times by Stuart Broad for 119 runs.
- Ben Stokes averages just 16.11 against the bowling of Mitchell Starc in all international cricket, falling nine times in 15 innings in which they faced off (9/145).
- Pat Cummins has taken the scalp of Zak Crawley twice in Test matches at a cost of 107 runs.
- Ben Duckett scored 182 against Ireland on his debut appearance at Lord’s.
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