The Perth Test could present Ben Stokes with the trickiest of dilemmas come Friday morning. He has shown many times that he prefers to bowl first when he wins the toss, yet the short history of this relatively new ground suggests that anyone who gets the choice should opt to bat.
There have been five Tests at the Perth Stadium since 2018, when it took over from the famous Waca ground a short hop away across the Swan River as the city’s principal international cricket venue, and on all five occasions the team winning the toss elected to bat first. Moreover, all five times those sides went on to win the game by clear margins. The narrowest result was by 146 runs.
Admittedly one of the five, involving New Zealand in 2019, was a day/night Test played in circumstances not directly comparable to this week’s day-time game, but nonetheless the direction of travel has been plain.
Stokes may reckon that in this instance bowling first would enable him to play to the strength of his pace bowlers at a ground that has the kind of pace and carry they should relish. They could put down an early marker and set things up for the batsmen. It has been no secret that England are contemplating selecting an all-pace attack.
Yet, were England to bowl first it would equally play to an Australian strength — their unarguable advantage in possessing the best spinner on either side in Nathan Lyon.
Broadly speaking, spin has not played a huge part in the Tests at the Optus Stadium, but Lyon himself has been influential. He has bowled as many overs in the five Tests there as all the other spinners combined, and taken 29 wickets to their 12.
Lyon has a fine record at the Optus Stadium having taken 29 wickets in five Tests
EPA/RICHARD WAINWRIGHT
If the pitch offers bounce, then someone like Lyon, who has a gift for generating over-spin, will benefit just as much as a fast bowler, but he could be even more of a threat if he gets to bowl in the fourth innings as conditions deteriorate — as could happen if Stokes wins the toss and bowls.
Lyon has taken more than half of his 29 wickets on this ground in the fourth innings at an average of 16.26.
Stokes has won the toss in 21 of his 36 Tests since taking over as captain in 2022. He has actually elected to bat eight times, but six of those cases occurred in Asia, where pitches tend to deteriorate sharply and the advantages of batting first are simply too great to ignore.
Gill made England, and Stokes, pay this summer when scoring 269 after India were put in to bat first at Edgbaston
ALEX DAVIDSON/GETTY IMAGES
In England and New Zealand — the only other places Stokes’s team have played — he has bowled first 13 times out of 15.
One of the two exceptions came in the opening Test of the 2023 Ashes at Edgbaston, when Stokes batted first and made a performative declaration shortly before stumps with England going well on 393 for eight and Joe Root unbeaten on 118, in what proved a futile bid to snatch an early wicket.
England went on to lose that game narrowly, but Stokes was unrepentant. He was more chastened when he put India in on the same ground in July this year and watched as his side were buried under an avalanche of runs, Shubman Gill alone scoring 269 and 161. Stokes admitted he got that call wrong and when he next won the toss he batted first at Lord’s, and marshalled England brilliantly to victory on the final afternoon.
That performance was one of a number of signs last summer that England were attempting to play smarter cricket. Whether those intentions carry over into this series we are about to find out.
Of course, it is equally possible that Australia win the toss later this week — and presumably choose to bat first and give Lyon the fourth innings to play with — and Stokes is spared a difficult call.
ScheduleFirst Test: Perth Stadium, Perth | Nov 21-25. (2.30am UK time)Second Test: The Gabba, Brisbane (Day-night Test) | Dec 4-8 (3.40am)Third Test: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide | Dec 17-21 (midnight)Fourth Test: MCG, Melbourne | Dec 26-30 (11.30pm)Fifth Test: SCG, Sydney | Jan 4-8 (11.30pm)