Paul Farbrace, the assistant England coach who has been credited with laying the foundations on which the Ashes-winning campaign was built, claims the side’s early season conversion to playing aggressive cricket in Tests was by accident rather than design.
Few would have predicted at 30 for four on the first day of the first Test against New Zealand in May that Alastair Cook’s team would be capable of going on to beat Australia with a match to spare. There was a mood of despondency dripping down the timelines of social media three months ago.
Joe Root and Ben Stokes produced a counterattacking stand of 161 runs that day at more than five an over, dragging England back into the Test and setting the tone for a summer that resulted in the Ashes being regained at Trent Bridge on Saturday. It helped banish the demons of the 2013-14 whitewash tour, and England’s World Cup disaster earlier this year.
“I don’t think we set out to be an ultra-attacking team,” said Farbrace, who was named as caretaker coach for the series against New Zealand following the sacking of Peter Moores, as England awaited the arrival of their Australian head coach, Trevor Bayliss.
“It just happened by chance, at 30 for four on that first day at Lord’s against New Zealand. Root plays one way, gets his singles and scores boundaries, and then Stokes came in and whacked it. And all of a sudden the headlines were: ‘This new England way of playing’. I think we stumbled across it as opposed to set out to play in that way – but it suits us.”
Farbrace echoed Cook’s sentiments at the presentation ceremony on Saturday, when the captain credited Moores for the work during his 13-month long spell as the head coach before Bayliss. The former Kent and Middlesex wicketkeeper believes the secret to the team’s apparent reboot this summer has been a core of senior players and the enjoyment of each other’s successes. “We have fantastic senior players in Cook, Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Ian Bell – they are four absolute dream senior players,”Farbrace said.
“They are very different personalities but their performances have been outstanding. You need to have good role models for your younger players to learn from. Anderson and Broad are meticulous in their preparation.
“Cook, with the way that he plays and leads the team, has really shown in the last few months how good a captain he is. He said he is a stubborn bloke but you need to be stubborn to come through what he has come through.
“I watched on TV last year and he was being interviewed every game, constantly trying to find a positive after they have lost. That must be draining but he has got through that and shown his skills. He is just a fantastic bloke. The dressing room has always been behind him and wanted him to succeed.”
Epitomising the team-first mentality of the side, in the eyes of Farbrace, is Moeen Ali, who has batted at No8 this summer, despite craving a top-order berth, and has contributed vital lower-order runs in the wins at Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.
“Enjoying one another’s success is a huge part of a team,” Farbrace said. “Cricket can be a survival game and when you are in survival mode your focus is on you and staying in the team. When you are in winning mode, it is very much about the team doing well.
“Look at Moeen now, he has accepted batting at No8. He doesn’t want to bat at No8, of course he doesn’t; he wants to bat as high up the order as he can. He is a proper batsman and he will go on to have a fantastic Test career as a batsman in Test cricket, I believe.”
