{"id":333729,"date":"2025-12-07T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333729\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:18:09","slug":"why-australian-cricket-will-only-get-stronger-as-ben-stokes-england-struggle-to-stay-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333729\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Australian cricket will only get stronger as Ben Stokes\u2019 England struggle to stay alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

England have not won a Test on these shores since their 2010\/11 series triumph. That looks likely to continue, however, Australia\u2019s interim captain Steve Smith senses a comeback beckons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to come back hard, whether they play really aggressive, or take the foot off the pedal a little bit, we\u2019ll wait and see,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Neser took his maiden Test five-wicket haul.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

So much was made of England\u2019s pace bowling arsenal \u2013 Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson and Mark Wood all possessing the speed they felt would trouble the Australians.<\/p>\n

That was true in the first innings in Perth, dismantling Australia for 132. Since then, they have not fired a shot.<\/p>\n

Wood\u2019s knee injury cruelled them of one strike weapon, but of those who remained, only Archer\u2019s first innings efforts went for fewer than four runs an over in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Of the 24 wickets they have taken, eight have come through allrounder Ben Stokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first innings with the ball this game, it was myself and Brydon who let that pressure off,\u201d Stokes admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBatsmen can hit you off the area you want to zone in on, but me and Brydon know we weren\u2019t able to back up Jofra and Gus\u2019 first spell, and we weren\u2019t able to deliver the consistency Australia delivered this whole Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lovely crack running down the wicket \u2013 Scott Boland and Neser were incredible at hitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s something like that in the wicket that can assist you, and you\u2019re not consistently able to hammer away at that \u2026 we let the game get away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While neither Matthew Potts nor Josh Tongue played this week, those who lined up for the England Lions also failed to fire, with Australia A declaring at 8\/588<\/a>. Paired with the national side\u2019s 511, and the respective England bowlers conceded 1099 runs in two Brisbane innings.<\/p>\n

Before his back injury ruled him out of his home Test, Usman Khawaja had been paired with seven other openers since David Warner\u2019s in early 2024.<\/p>\n

But Australia may have found a winner in Jake Weatherald.<\/p>\n

The late-bloomer looked brilliant en route to a first innings 72, attacking anything short and outside his off stump, while being unafraid to audaciously lift the ball over the slips cordon.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

Jake Weatherald hit a blistering 72 off 78 balls in the first innings.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Weatherald then played a minor anchor role in his second dig, finishing unbeaten on 16 as Smith pummeled 23 from just nine balls.<\/p>\n

This is, admittedly, a narrative Australian cricket pundits have seen before. Sam Kontas, Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch and even Smith all scored half-centuries early in their stints as Test openers.<\/p>\n

Matthew Renshaw compiled 184 in his fourth Test in early 2017, but has only managed another 10 caps.<\/p>\n

However, Weatherald\u2019s chance came after a decade honing his craft, culminating in his 906 runs at an average of 50.33 last Shield season to lay the foundation for his ascent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just seeing, reacting and trying to get in good positions. I didn\u2019t actively go out there and play any differently to what I normally would,\u201d Weatherald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy with the way I left. People obviously think about me scoring quickly, but as an opener, I really pride myself on how well I leave, and I feel as though I can adapt to different scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have not won a Test on these shores since their 2010\/11 series triumph. That looks likely to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-333729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}