Flat track woolly: Have Ashes pitches hindered England?

As he became the subject of ruthless fast-bowling target practice on Sunday, Jimmy Anderson must have wondered what he was doing in the middle of Lord’s.

Called to the crease with an unlikely 69 runs required to win, England's all-time leading wicket taker faced 23 balls in his hopeless final-day stand. All 23 of them were short, the majority accurately aimed at his body or head, all of them delivered by Australian fast bowlers standing between 190 and 200 centimetres tall, all capable of bowling above 140kph.

Anderson, who turns 41 later this month, did all this without complaint and with considerable bravery. With men gathered around him, he attempted to get his body behind every one of them and got struck in the helmet on the one ball he tried to attack.

A difficult Test was capped as he watched Josh Tongue's leg-stump uprooted to seal an Australian win. Anderson had taken two wickets, made three runs and dropped two catches over the five days.

Image Id: 7327393B0FEE4598A98D94D7FB9B77A6 Image Caption: James Anderson receives a short ball on day five at Lord’s // Getty

The sorry story of the modern game's most enduring cricketer being reduced to a mere pawn when none of his skills have noticeably diminished illustrate just how extreme conditions, and the tactics employed to counter them, have been in this Ashes series so far.

And as Australia arrive in Leeds with a 2-0 series lead, it begs the question whether England have negated the influence of one of their best cricketers to make life easier for the others.

Since the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes reign commenced, players like Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Zac Crawley and Jonny Bairstow have all, to various degrees, had better returns with the bat than they did previously. Harry Brook, who debuted in the Bazball-era, has thrived when he otherwise might not have been viewed as a Test player.

Along with Ben Stokes' pre-series request for "fast, flat pitches", the license granted to his top-order to attack in any scenario has undoubtedly lifted those players, who, in turn, have made England a much better team than they were.

But they are now staring down the barrel of losing a home Ashes series for the first time in 22 years and Anderson is wondering out loud if conditions are actually delivering his team an advantage.

"When you see the best bowlers in the world slamming it into the middle of the pitch, it is not great viewing," Anderson wrote in his column for the Telegraph, having suggested after the first Test that flat surfaces could end his involvement in the series.

"If you asked all the bowlers on show at Lord’s, they will say they want to try other skills as well. I have spent 20 years pitching the ball up trying to swing it and move it off the deck and when you do not get anything doing that, it is frustrating.

"I just have to keep working on my game, chat to the coaches and see if there is something more I can be doing."

Australia's conservative approach with the bat (at least compared with their opponents) has had the effect of draining an England bowling attack that is older, slower through the air and has one fewer reliably-fit member than their counterparts (when comparing the hobbled Stokes, who is battling a chronic knee injury, to the sprightly Cameron Green).

They have also lacked a world-class spinner, though that will be the case for both teams now Nathan Lyon is out of the series.

Stuart Broad, who turned 37 last month, and Ollie Robinson have each sent down more than 91 overs for the series. Even Anderson, the least bowled of the pace trio who have played both Tests, has bowled more than Australia's most used quick, Pat Cummins; Anderson has bowled 77 overs to Cummins' 73.4.

Josh Hazlewood has only been required to deliver 56 overs in two matches, while Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland have sent down 64.3 between them (including the World Test Championship final).

The difference in the physical toll those workloads have had on each attack will only have been magnified by the bouncer barrage they were asked to deliver last week.

No Test has seen more short balls bowled than the one at Lord’s, and if pitches necessitate that type of bowling for the rest of the series, it is difficult to see how that favours England over Australia.

The tourists have admitted their surprise at what has played out in the first two matches.

"We didn't anticipate the series to play like this in the first couple of Test matches with the amount of short-pitched deliveries," said coach Andrew McDonald.

"I think any time you're playing a Test match when you've got a surface such as the two (Tests) that have been presented sometimes when the sun's out, you're left with few options."

England's gung-ho style with the bat is also forcing their bowlers back out onto the ground with less rest than their Australian counterparts.

The hosts have bowled on every day of this series bar one and have sent down 109 more overs than Australia.

That is a remarkable discrepancy given how close both Tests have been; Australia have only scored 45 more runs than England, while the two teams have taken the same number of wickets.

Unsurprisingly, England have ruled out a rethink of their tactics.

"Imagine if we just bat a bit longer and still score as quickly. We'll get a big score, won't we?" said former captain Joe Root, whose England team have scored their runs much faster than Australia; 4.36 per over versus Australia's 3.31.

"Your aim is to build those big partnerships that win you games, it doesn't matter how quickly you do it. You're looking to manage different situations and wrestle momentum and put pressure on different bowlers.

"We play our cricket a certain way. If we do it for long periods of time we're going to drive games forward quickly and put ourselves in strong positions.

"As a team we keep things very simple. We want to go out and try to put pressure on the opposition when it comes to batting, and absorb it at times when we need to.

"With the ball it's about taking wickets, it's all about taking wickets.

"That's their job as bowlers to do that, ours is to back it up in the field, and make sure we get more runs than Australia."

The introduction of one or two fresh bowlers in Mark Wood and Chris Woakes should help the hosts at Headingley, while a change in the type of pitches produced for the rest of the series has also been flagged.

"Three matches left, we will now be faced with three result pitches. This series has turned into a shootout," Broad wrote in his column for the Daily Mail, while local boy Root noted the presence of "live grass" on the Leeds surface two days out from the third Test.

England may wonder if they have changed tack too late.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood