![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/6758c02c2bba8e9b35e7808a45dfecd1881225a6.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nEngland, by contrast, have been a walking casualty ward as far as fast bowlers are concerned, epitomised by how Archer has spent virtually six years trying to find a way to stay on the park. Wood and others have struggled similarly, leaving the ECB\u2019s Rob Key to lament the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always find it slightly frustrating how they managed to keep those bowlers fit for almost everything,\u201d Key told the (London) Telegraph last month. \u201cThat\u2019s the dream, isn\u2019t it? Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, with the era that they\u2019ve had, it\u2019s been a lot because of those guys. That\u2019s the holy grail, really, being able to keep your best bowlers fit like that for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
For England, the sight of Archer steaming in at Lord\u2019s, making a quantifiable difference to the match and how it was played, was dreamy indeed as far as the Ashes are concerned. While it is still a long time between now and the first ball in Perth, Archer\u2019s availability will be a huge factor in the series.<\/p>\n
The ugly Englishmen?<\/p>\n
It was Archer who spoke most frankly about how England turned a corner in terms of their decision to start sledging India during the Lord\u2019s Test. That turn, once taken, can be hard to reverse \u2013 just ask the 2018 Australian side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all came together as a group yesterday, and said, \u2018We\u2019re a bit too nice\u2019,\u201d Jofra Archer said after England\u2019s narrow victory. \u201cWhen we go to other places, some teams aren\u2019t as nice to us as we are to them. I guess we just tried to shift it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Bazball era, England have been many things to many people. Saviours of Test cricket, tactical revolutionaries, self-appointed role models for the rest of the world, and compulsive producers of flowery rhetoric about all of the above.<\/p>\n
But as they get to the pointy end of the project with the India series and then the Ashes tour, it\u2019s clear that Stokes and McCullum are concerned more than ever about being winners, whatever it takes.<\/p>\n
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Sam Konstas was bowled for 25 in the second Test in Grenada.Credit: AP<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an intriguing juncture, given how much of Australia\u2019s recent success has been derived from taking a more holistic view, and trying to stay level irrespective of results.<\/p>\n
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In September, Lord\u2019s is due to hold a glitzy $500 per head (in the cheap seats) dinner with Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson and Stokes to memorialise the 2019 World Cup final at the ground. A big dinner to mark a Cup final that took place six years ago is a reminder that English cricket has relatively few major wins to hang on to over their history \u2013 it\u2019s difficult to imagine such a fuss being made in Australia about the 2023 World Cup victory, for example.<\/p>\n
So, with an enormous amount at stake, Australia should be ready for the English red mist to descend this summer. It has equal chances of helping or hurting the Bazball cause, but it will certainly add to the theatre.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s batting order, or battling order?<\/p>\n
Since his Boxing Day starburst<\/a>, Sam Konstas\u2019 exposure to Test cricket has been a brutal one. But he\u2019s far from the only member of the Australian top six with question marks over their methods and places in the team.<\/p>\n The national selectors will be compelled to cast widely around for a sturdy opener to partner Usman Khawaja this summer, not least because 38-year-old Khawaja is not exactly at his best either.<\/p>\n With the benefit of some time out of the side and a pre-season to work on his game, there is every chance that Marnus Labuschagne may slot back into the XI against England, provided he shows that a technical and tactical reset has refreshed him.<\/p>\n Other Australian players of high quality against pace bowling include the likes of Josh Inglis, Mitch Marsh, Marcus Harris, Jake Weatherald, Nathan McSweeney, Matt Short and Campbell Kellaway. Of those, only Harris, Weatherald and Kellaway are specialist openers. All are left-handed.<\/p>\n What is critical for Cummins and company is that the top two provide something of a buffer for Cameron Green at three and then Steve Smith and Travis Head at four and five. Smith and Head are much-diminished threats against a brand-new ball, and Green is still new to first drop.<\/p>\n Superman Stokes, big Beau and the Green machine<\/p>\n Among the biggest differences between this summer and the 2023 Ashes will be that, so far at least, Ben Stokes has regained the all-round abilities that made him such an explosive cricketer in the first place.<\/p>\n Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Regarding bowling long spells, Stokes talked about going to \u201cdark places\u201d, sounding like a Northumbrian King fighting off the Vikings.<\/p>\n Dark places or not, Stokes\u2019 pace and swing at Lord\u2019s made a huge difference to the outcome, balancing the England side in the way that Australia have lately been able to do with Green and Beau Webster. Whether there is room for both Australian all-rounders is open to debate, as Green works his way back slowly from back surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the 2021-22 Ashes summer, infamously \u201cscrubbed\u201d from the records by Stuart Broad, it was actually Green who troubled England\u2019s best batter Joe Root more often than not, finding the bounce and movement to turn Root\u2019s pet deflections through gully into thin edges behind.<\/p>\n Stokes, of course, has a recent history of knee and hamstring problems. Like Archer, he will be fighting dual battles against Australia and his own body.<\/p>\n![\"Brendon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/478ea650f725c825a7a93d4dca213b6c72fa80a4.jpeg\")
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