Shades of Trent Bridge in spicy Southampton conditions

During a quiet moment in the days before the much-anticipated intra-squad Ashes warm-up game, men's team coach Justin Langer outlined what he hoped to find in the pitch prepared at Hampshire's Ageas Bowl.

Ideally, it would sport a covering of grass to offer something to the glut of fast bowlers pushing their claims for the likely 16-man Ashes squad to be finalised by match's end.

It would also provide for some highly competitive cricket, so that those who make it through to that exclusive touring party had been hardened for battle in the fire of unstinting competition. 

And perhaps, Langer noted with a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes, it might yield a hint of Trent Bridge on that infamous morning four years ago when yet another Australia Ashes dream was laid waste in two hours of batting mayhem.

In summoning the ghost of Trent Bridge, a spectre that has both haunted and driven the men's team to wrest the tiny terracotta urn on British soil for the first time since 2001, Langer was daring to replicate the conditions for carnage that existed that August morning.

In the belief that exposure to such a trial might grant them the wisdom and wherewithal should history repeat in coming months.

But as the four-day fixture between the two teams of compatriots turned competitors began today under flawless skies that bore no resemblance to Nottingham's low cloud and lingering damp, Langer must have silently revisited precisely what he'd wished for.

With the new Dukes ball nipping and biting off the grassy surface that carpeted a bedrock of hard, dry earth, the Brad Haddin XII that featured a bulk of the anticipated Ashes top-order found themselves suddenly capitulating at Trent Bridge pace.

Openers David Warner and Marcus Harris were gone within the first half hour, and the middle-order boasting vice-captain Travis Head and last-start Test century maker Kurtis Patterson folded like a canvas deck chair on a nearby Bournemouth beach.

And the individual tallies recorded in the scorebook – the electronic scoreboard at the Ageas Bowl having checked-out even earlier than the battling batters – read like a Wimbledon championship update – 4, 6, 1, 2, 4, 6.

Only Queenslander Marnus Labuschagne - whose months of preparation with Welsh county Glamorgan in division two of the UK domestic competition held him in strong stead - could seemingly fathom where the ball was going, and counter it when it did.

At day's end, and as the only player among the cream of Australia's men's batting stocks to reach 30, Labuschagne revealed that uncertainty over how the pitch would play led him to consult local knowledge prior to the coin toss.

Image Id: 5AE2E2FAD7474756B0EBBCE9B8D04685 Image Caption: Marnus Labuschagne impressed with the bat for the Haddin XII // Getty

"We were ummin-g and aah-ing this morning about what to do, if we were going to bowl or bat," Labuschagne said after compiling a hard-earned 41 from 81 deliveries in his team's total of 105.

"I caught (Hampshire captain) Sam Northeast in the changeroom, and he said that on this wicket they tend to bat first because of the deterioration during the game.

"It's really hard to tell … there was plenty of swing and seam the whole day, so I don't think it made too much of a difference batting first or second.

"The heavy roller, over here it flattens out for 30 or 40 minutes, but towards the back end (as the rival Graeme Hick XII slumped to 7-96) it was probably still lively and going.

"With bowlers that bowled a heavy ball into the wicket, they got more up and down out of the wicket than there would be in a championship game with bowlers a bit slower and a bit more sideways movement."

Those "heavy ball" bowlers were, unsurprisingly, James Pattinson (1-16), Michael Neser (4-18), Pat Cummins (3-15) Peter Siddle (3-20) and Jackson Bird (3-28) as victim after victim was either trapped on the crease or nicked off against the late movement.

Bird has previously operated as a swing bowler aiming to 'kiss' the pitch, but he has been working closely with Australia A bowling coach Ryan Harris (another exponent of the heavy ball in his playing days) to change his method.

It paid dividends on the sort of hard, dry pitch that the Ashes combatants might reasonably expect to see as the British summer heats up – it is tipped to reach 37C in London later this week – and he has done his hopes of inclusion in the touring party (named Friday) no harm.

"It was a funny sort of wicket," Bird assessed at the end of an opening day in which 17 wickets fell for 201 runs suggesting grey, gloomy conditions rather than the sunny skies that prevailed throughout.

"You don’t really see this type of wicket in England – there was lots of live grass on it, but the surface was really dry.

"There was a bit of inconsistent bounce from the top (pavilion) end and it nipped around a little bit with the inconsistent bounce which made it hard.

"But the wicket got a little bit better as the day went on."

If that's the case, then the similarity to Trent Bridge 2015 that Langer had dared to contemplate might yet prevail.

In that Test, after the tourists were humbled for 60 before lunch on day one, the pitch appeared to undergo a marked change as England surged to 4-274 by stumps on their way to a thumping win by an innings and 78 runs.

Image Id: 3A3D8C59F3C64B19A6C146D1C9110C2F Image Caption: Michael Clarke trudges from Trent Bridge during the 2015 Ashes // Getty

The fact that a Test-strength Australia batting line-up finds itself hard-pressed to reel in an equally star-studded line-up's modest total of 105 after a day's play indicates ball summarily dominated from start to stumps today.

Whether that trend continues is, it would seem, anyone's guess.

Certainly Labuschagne, who the scoreboard (when it returned to life in the heat of the afternoon) showed was able to read the conditions better than most, admits he has no clue as to whether or not batting will become any less fraught over coming days.

"I've played on some wickets over here this summer that have gotten better as the game's gone on," he said.

"They start off a little bit more two-paced, but I'm not too sure (about this one).

"Obviously they (the Hick XII) have got Nathan Lyon in their side so if does deteriorate it's going to be hard work.

"If it's not with pace, it will be with spin."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Tour match: Hick XII v Haddin XII, July 23-26

First Test: Edgbaston, August 1-5

Tour match: Australians v Worcestershire, August 7-9

Second Test: Lord's, August 14-18

Third Test: Headingley, August 22-26

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: Old Trafford, September 4-8

Fifth Test: The Oval, September 12-16