The Australians are not really allowed to talk about the pitches now. If they do it will sound as if they are whingeing. And by and large the Aussies do not approve of whingeing.
Darren Lehmann expressed some disappointment about the slowness of the surface in Cardiff during the Test match but Australia’s reaction had to be more guarded afterwards. They could say nothing other than that they had been thoroughly outplayed in all departments, an observation readily acknowledged by Michael Clarke amid the debris of defeat.
However, the nature of the pitches for the remainder of the series will be occupying their minds. At Cardiff the surface suited England nicely. The bouncer was negated and this was a significant part of Australia’s armoury when England were thrashed there 18 months ago. In some ways that tour was a throwback because fear was so obviously a factor again. The lower half of England’s batting order was – let’s be polite – “apprehensive” about facing Mitchell Johnson. The top half was none too enthusiastic either.
Here is one England batsman’s recollection of the prospect of facing Johnson straight after lunch in that series – with the odd expletive deleted. “Lunch? No thanks. I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the Gabbatoir.” Our witness then implored Mushtaq Ahmed to accompany him to the indoor nets and to hurl a wet tennis ball at his head by way of preparation.
“Then I walked out for my first ball. I had been petrified: if Trotty can get played like that there is no hope for me.” Thus wrote Kevin Pietersen in a recent autobiography that may have escaped your attention – and, relatively speaking, he played Johnson pretty well on that tour. Then the ball was whistling through at shoulder height two or three times an over, forever bringing to mind the refrain of Lance Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army. But in Cardiff a bouncer was almost as rare as an MP yelling “mea culpa” from the dispatch box. A few were propelled in the direction of Stuart Broad but he survived them unlike two of the three deliveries he received from the off-spinner, Nathan Lyon, in the Test match (as an old member of the off-spinning union there is bemusement at this sudden philanthropy towards finger-spinners).
Fear is not the only factor. With the bouncer almost taken out of the equation the batsmen can adopt a slightly different technique. There is no longer the inclination to lodge on the back foot to avoid the lifting delivery. Hence against the swinging ball, which is the greatest weapon of Mitchell Starc, there is the confidence to move forward to be in a good position to drive full-length deliveries. England’s batsmen were never shy of driving the ball against Starc or Johnson in Cardiff and they had an unusually high ratio of opportunities.
So the intriguing question is what sort of pitch will be produced at Lord’s. Lehmann is almost resigned to another slow one. “I’d just like to see you be able to bowl a bouncer on day one. That’d be nice.” Johnson and Starc – if he is fit – might say “Amen to that”.
Certainly antipodean conspiracy theorists will have more meat to chew on if the Lord’s pitch is not very green and not very fast. Down in Cardiff we witnessed the sort of surface that has been commonplace on that square for the past few decades.
As it happens it produced a very fine Test match. Wickets fell – rather more quickly than anticipated – to all types of bowlers. Runs flowed at a rate around four per over. Only those with tickets for the final day felt in the least bit short-changed. Hence there can be no complaints.
However, we know that there is a little more flexibility at Lord’s. Examine the last three Tests there: in June 2014 there was an exciting draw against Sri Lanka even though the pitch, which soon acquired a dull brown colour, lacked pace. In July 2014 the players were greeted, according to Wisden, by “the greenest surface served up at Lord’s in living memory – at the start it was hard to distinguish the pitch from the playing area”. England did not play frightfully well and lost to India by 95 runs.
In May of this year there was also some green grass on the pitch, which ensures more pace, and this was enough to persuade New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum to bowl first. England, despite a first-innings deficit of 134, ended up winning a thrilling encounter by 124 runs.
At the time everyone reached for superlatives to describe a pacy track, which had enabled five days of dazzling cricket. The point is that at Lord’s, perhaps unlike Cardiff, there is the expertise and the scope to produce a variety of pitches.
We can be sure that this week’s Test pitch will not be greener than the one that greeted MS Dhoni and his India team 12 months ago, but there is still room for much fevered speculation about what will be unveiled by Mick Hunt, the immensely skilful and experienced Lord’s head groundsman, on Thursday morning.
