Ahead of the Ashes, speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports, former England cricketer Mark Butcher gives his verdict on whether Mark Wood should risk the first Test after his latest injury scare, and what conditions await in Perth.
The piece also settles the Ollie Pope vs Jacob Bethell debate at No.3, explains why the opening two Tests are wide-open “shootouts” that play straight into England’s hands, and asks if Australia’s injury woes and ageing attack finally hand the visitors a golden chance.
Butcher also reflects on his own Ashes experiences giving an interesting insight into what it was once like as a cricketer for England playing in an away Ashes in Australia.
Mark Wood
Will Mark Wood Play Test 1?
The temptation is to play Mark Wood with Perth's reputation as being a quick and bouncy track. The temptation would certainly be to try and hit them with our quickest bowlers in the very first Test match, but I think it carries one or two risks. Particularly with Stokes’ injury record and Wood having not played any cricket for a very long period of time, even though he is somebody that doesn't need a massive amount of bowling before he goes into in the competition. The way I think England are going to line up is that you'll have either Jacob Bethell or Will Jacks batting at number eight.
Stokes at six, Smith at seven, Bethell or Jacks at number eight, and then the three quicks. And the three that I would go with would be Archer, Atkinson and Josh Tongue, and of course Ben Stokes himself. That was how ideally I would line up in that first Test anyway. With Wood’s injury scare at Lilac Hill, it looks as though he’s unlikely to start anyway.
They might play Brydon Carse instead of Tongue, but Tongue offers something that is completely different to everybody else and also in Australia, having somebody that is a professional tail ‘mopper upper’ is absolutely invaluable, so I’d be inclined to start with him.
Perth Conditions
Perth Conditions
The first two Test matches, both the day/night game at Brisbane and in Perth, are up for grabs for anybody. My concern over England's style of play and where they are most dangerous is if a pitch is offering something and the game is likely to be a fast one, then it gives England a really great shot. They've got tremendous bowling resources, and they don't have to play a specialist spin bowler in either of those two games, which means that they can lengthen the batting with either Jacob Bethell or Will Jacks at eight. Then the game becomes a little bit of a lottery, a bit more of a shootout, and everybody starts 50/50 in those circumstances.
On the pitches that we expect will probably get a little bit flatter at Adelaide and Melbourne, with the drop in pitch there and then at Sydney, where the game is a little bit more traditional, played out over a longer period of time - that's where England are more vulnerable in Australian conditions. When the spin bowler has to take a bigger role, where batting at a tempo over a long period of time becomes more necessary, that’s where Australia would hold the edge over us in Australian conditions.
These first two tests are going to be a lot of fun to watch and very, very difficult to call. But we have a tremendous chance in both of them of getting a positive result because of the strength of our fast bowling.
Pope vs Bethell
Who Plays At #3? Pope vs Bethell
I’d play Ollie Pope. I wouldn't have had a massive issue if they'd have decided to move Jacob Bethell in there. The interesting thing is Ollie Pope's mentality - they’ve made life a little bit difficult for him. Obviously, they've removed him from the vice captaincy, and Bethell has been sniffing around. Bethell didn't take his chance in New Zealand - he had three chances there to make a huge case for himself to start in The Ashes and didn’t make any runs, so the likelihood is that Pope starts.
Given that we expect that these first two test matches to be to be quick ones, the likelihood is that they don't play the specialist spinner in Shoab Bashir and that either Bethell or Jacks will play at number eight or number seven, depending on where they want to put Jamie Smith. That is the likely starting line-up in terms of its make-up anyway, personnel-wise it’s obviously unknown at the moment.
Australian Squad
An Aussie Injury Crisis?
When you lose your captain and one of the best three fast bowlers in the world, then you obviously start a little bit on the back foot. Hazelwood has been given the all clear for the first Test, but Abbott is definitely out.
Doggett is the other spare fast bowler in their squad, so they’re down to the bare bones a little bit, and they can't afford any mishaps to occur. But having said that, Boland is an irresistible bowler in Australian conditions. England will try and go at him as they did at home in the last series in 2023, but he’s a different proposition in Australia and on Australian pitches. They're a little bit old and creaky, but they're still unbelievably good. Both teams will want to win the toss and have a bowl in Perth, and it will be a shootout between those two bowling lineups.
Ageing Australia
Australia’s squad isn’t too old. In 2005, England won The Ashes for the first time in years and then went down to Australia in 2006/07 with exactly the same chat that’s going on now. The Australian team, in terms of age, was going to be retiring after the 2006/07 series, and they won 5-0. So I wouldn't hold that against them!
Their experience is going to count for a lot in this series. We've seen this already, and this is something that goes back to the dawn of time - the way that the entire country gets on the case of an England side, from press headlines to the guys at immigration, your hotel staff - there's no quarter given anywhere.
For some of the England players, it's the first time that they'll have experienced any of that, and it is unlike any other series, home or away, that you ever encounter. The experience that the Australian players will carry into a series like this is going to be invaluable to them, and it's going to make them hard to beat. We haven't won a Test match down there, let alone the series, since 2010/11. So, regardless of their age, they're still favourites for sure.
Australian Media
Could The Australian Media Fire England Up?
The Australian press will have fired the England team up!. They've decided to have a pop at Ben Stokes and Joe Root, and they are very experienced in playing in Australia and know exactly what to expect. I suppose the only disappointing thing from my point of view is they've had four years to come up with some stuff, and most of it was pretty rubbish - at least the articles could have been vaguely amusing!
They were just basic playground insults at people, and I don't think that will have a massive effect on the likes of Root and Stokes. But there's half a chance that people who have never experienced it before will be taken aback. That’s why it would have been great, particularly if the batters had a bit more of a good time in New Zealand, so they're carrying some inner confidence ahead of a series in which every single aspect of the game on the field and their character off it will be taken into consideration - and in some cases, taken apart.
Joe Root
Joe Root
Joe Root’s numbers over the last three years have been utterly phenomenal, and it would take something extraordinary for him to get through 10 innings in an Ashes series without making a century. He’s playing that well, but it's something that will be in the back of his mind until he does it, even for somebody of his quality, his class and experience. It's something that will be niggling away at him.
I remember watching Rodney Hogg in the 80s playing for Australia, and having some ex-players come out and personally attack him in the way that they have also shows they're concerned that if he has a good series, then that could be the difference between the two sides. It’s much the same as we'd be concerned about Steve Smith having a blinder. If one batter on either side really stands out and has a big series, that might well decide where the urn goes.
Ashes Player Tension
“There Will Be Quite A Lot Of Needle!”
There will be quite a lot of needle! The players on both sides know each other very well - a lot of them are teammates at various franchises. There isn't animosity and hatred that is born out of not having personal relationships with these guys.
Given that England feel as though they have a really genuine chance of winning down there, and for a lot of them, it is going to be their last Ashes series, there is already quite a lot of tension in the air. When you add to high-paced bowling on both sides, particularly on ours, the level of combativeness that is already there before a ball is bowled is heightened to quite some level.
Players Won’t Be Sharing A Beer!
I don't think that the players will be having a beer with each other even after one Test match, let alone after the series! It’s certainly going to be worth watching on the field, and sparks will be flying because the stakes are so very high.
The best way for the England team to quieten down all of the abuse and the stick that they are going to get regardless, is to go out there and play Australia off the park - it’s not going to be easy, but that's that's the only way to do it.
Ashes Reflections
Ashes Reflections
There's very little that prepares you for an Ashes series for the first time. My first away tour for England was to the West Indies in 1997, and we had a High Commissioner come and talk to us before we went, and he made some rather inappropriate and racist comments about West Indian people and what we should be wary of. It was myself, Dean Headley and Devon Malcolm and various others, but they'd gone to the length of trying to prepare us for a West Indies trip.
But nothing happened as far as the Australia tour was concerned, and so the first time I remember getting off the plane, you'd be collecting your baggage from the carousel, and I remember them just taking every single piece of kit out of the coffin. They're spraying your bats and spraying the soles of your shoes and basically treating you like criminals from the second you arrive. And that was when you went ‘Okay, this is how it's going to be!’
You're going down there for a 2–3-month tour, and it's like being involved in a London Derby, like Arsenal vs Tottenham, for three months on the spin. That's the level of scrutiny and interest - newspaper stories and everybody in the country is interested in The Ashes, and there isn't anything like that anywhere else. Even in India, you get a little bit of a break from it. It's not as in your face, but in Australia, The Ashes are treated on a different level to anywhere else.
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