Can Humiliation Change Australian Cricket Culture?

So once again, Australia will be without the Ashes for at least two and a half years, having only held them for eighteen months. The English cricket team are suddenly eyeing world domination again, the England fans can hold the gloating rights for an interminable length of time, and the English media and commentators will no doubt enjoy themselves over that period with glee. Once again as an Australian cricket supporter, we are faced with trying to ascertain how this could happen so quickly and decisively, and whether we have the ability to fight back from this humiliation and attempt to rebuild to the perceived dominance of just six weeks ago.

As was shown at both Cardiff and Edgbaston, England completely dominated in conditions that suited their team, which makes it even more unimaginable the wicket that was served up at Lords. Some may suggest that winning the toss was beneficial at Trent Bridge, but such was the decimation of the Australian batting line up, and the ineptness of its bowling line up in the same conditions - indeed, in the same session - that it is difficult to see that the result would have been any different.

The first session of this Test has probably only been matched in recent memory to another Australian collapse at Edgbaston in the 1st Test of 1997, when Australia was rolled for 118 and lost by 9 wickets (??). At least in that Test, Australia made England bat again through a gutsy revival led by Mark Taylor and Greg Blewett. At Trent Bridge in 2015, Dave Warner and Chris Rogers rode their luck to 0/113, but once one fell it was like a house of cards once again.

England must be given their due. They used the conditions magnificently. Chris Broad on the first morning had the ball on a five cent piece, and allowing the rickety techniques of the Australian batsmen to implement their own downfall. In the second innings it was the turn of Ben Stokes, who was a basket case with bat and ball 12 months ago, and now proclaimed the Next Botham after his six wicket performance with a brilliant display of swing and seam bowling. Then the batsmen led by Root, Bairstow and Cook tamed the conditions and took advantage of the less than stellar bowling from the Australians to dominate. It was almost the perfect Test match by England, though even they in their wildest dreams could not have thought what happened in the first session of the match could occur. From start to finish, it took just 32 days for Australia to relinquish the Ashes that few thought they would lose their grip on so soon or so easily.

England are joyous and rightly so. The drawn series against the West Indies and New Zealand have been forgotten in the euphoria of destroying Australia. Whatever the result is at The Oval next week, they have the Ashes and will go forward with confidence. That's not to say they will succeed. A trip to South Africa at the end of the year holds all the same dangers as did the Australian trip in 2013/14. They will rejoice in Cook's captaincy and subjective form with the bat. Joe Root is the number one (rated) batsman in Test cricket. Jonny Bairstow has returned with runs. Ben Stokes is a dangerous and competitive all rounder. Anderson and Broad still have it. Mark Wood looks an up-and-comer. What can go wrong in the climb up the Test rankings ladder? Quite a bit, given there are still some of their team holding on for the ride. But there's no need to address that until after The Oval.

Australia have little room to move within the squad that has been chosen and failed. The top three are all averaging over 40 for the series, which belies Smith's six innings apart from his Lords run-fest. Michael Clarke makes one final appearance in the baggy green having announced his retirement following the Trent Bridge massacre, and will be hoping to find anything to go out with runs and as a winner. Adam Voges visited the Dean Jones Saloon, his 51 not out likely to extend his Test career at least until The Oval, while Shaun Marsh's continued excellence in warm up games was followed by his continued failure at Test level. The choice for The Oval for the last spot in the top six will fall between Shaun Marsh, his brother Mitch Marsh... and yes... the possibility of a return for Shane Watson. If the future is in the eyes of the selectors then only one of those three should be considered.

The bowling doesn't open up a hell of a lot more options. Most commentators felt that if the selectors were not going to consider Peter Siddle for the seaming paradise of Trent Bridge then his career was over. The only other seamer in the squad is Pat Cummins, whose lack of long form cricket in his career is a stumbling block to selection. The outsider is Fawad Ahmed, still patiently awaiting his chance at the top level. If The Oval wicket is a typically flat and dry one then perhaps he'll get that chance at the expense of a seamer and the inclusion of Mitch Marsh as the third seamer. With Australia's next destination being Bangladesh, then surely this would be a proactive move. If the wicket has been spiced up then this would be less likely to occur.

With a dead Test match, followed by some unexcitable one day and Twenty20 matches to come, the winter of cricket viewing in Australia will now likely drop to almost negligible levels as the finals in both AFL and NRL take precedence over the shambles of the nation's cricket team. More is the pity given the good exposure thus far. Whether or not the team can regain lost ground with its supporters in that time all comes down to how they present themselves in the final Test of the summer.