England must keep their eyes on the urn

Stuart Broad of England celebrates with his teammates after Graeme Swann of England took the final wicket to claim victory during day four of the 2nd Investec Ashes Test match between England and Australia at Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 21, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

After a splendid start by the Englishmen, a lot of cricket pundits (especially those from England) have already assumed that England’s job is done. Of course, well begun is half done and all that sounds real good on paper, but let’s hope England hasn’t been bitten by the complacency bug. The remaining matches in the Ashes will be just as important for England as the first two were. And it goes without saying that the English camp would be going out all guns blazing to try and make it 5-0.

Australia, on the other hand, have been under immense pressure right from the start of the tournament. The first match could have gone either way, but in the end, the better team succeeded in handling the situation. Kudos to Ashton Agar and Brad Haddin, though. This depleted Aussie outfit’s weaknesses were exposed in the second Test. Inability to face quality English bowling and inexplicable shot selection – these have been the main villains for Australia in their recent losses.

Nevertheless, the fighting spirit that the world knows the Aussies for, shall hopefully go hand in hand with some solid performances in the forthcoming encounters. It is absolutely essential for ALL the specialist batsmen to contribute to the score, consistently. The Aussie batsmen have gone 4 innings without scoring a single ton. The highest score so far has been 98, that too, by Agar, who batted at No.11.

But if there’s one team which can learn from its mistakes and bounce back within no time, it is Australia. In fact, as history suggests, this would NOT be the first time that an Aussie side would make a comeback after being down in the dumps. And if the boys with the baggy green caps do manage to do so, we’ve got an exciting series on our hands.

All eyes will be on the game at Old Trafford, which starts on the 1st of August, with experts reckoning that Australia will be unable to cope with birthday boy James Anderson‘s reverse swing, paired with Swann’s offies. The track at Manchester isn’t exactly ideal for the Aussie boys, but let’s hope they surprise us with a good performance.

Actually, a ‘good’ performance might not be enough to take them over the line. What they need is a bunch of ‘special’ performances. A biggie from Watson’s willow, a fiver each for Siddle and Agar, a huge ton from Clarke and some solid stroke-play from Smith and Haddin, maybe.

The Australian camp would be pondering upon who the playing XI should be. It’s always good to have choices. Warner’s 193 for the ‘A’ side and Cowan’s half centuries against Sussex will provide Lehmann and Clarke with that choice. The Old Trafford wicket assists the tweakers, so I won’t be surprised if we see Nathan Lyon coming back into his own in Manchester (since Shane Watson is already performing the role of a 3rd seamer in the side).

James Anderson, in the meanwhile, will be licking his lips and hoping to single-handedly bamboozle his low-on-confidence opponents and add to the count of his existing 300+ wickets.

The defending champions are almost there, but is there going to be a twist in the tale?