“Opening Battle at The Ashes 2023: England vs Australia – Live Coverage”

The Ashes: A Clash of Cultures and a Battle for the Future of Test Cricket

08.01 BST Preamble by Rob Smyth

Well, that’s the next six weeks sorted. From WhatsApp to the watercooler, the dinner table to the dive bar, one thing is going to dominate conversation between now and 31 July, and it’s not peerages. In three hours’ time, at a roastingly hot Edgbaston, the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series since 2006-07 will begin.

That anticipation is easily explained: it’s the most exciting team in the world versus the best team in the world. Cricket could do with a classic Ashes series, given the existential crisis about the future of sport’s greatest format. But while both teams have a shared purpose to advertise Test cricket in all its abundant glory, they disagree on how it should be played in 2023.

A Clash of Cultures

The Ashes has always been a clash of cultures, yet England have never parked so many tanks on Australia’s lawn. They are enjoying a Bazball epiphany, playing perhaps the most attacking Test cricket in the 146-year history of the game, and have won 11 of their 13 games under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. But Australia is the new world champion and looks as formidable as they have in many a year, maybe since the retirement of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in 2007.

They aim to show that their brand of cricket – relentlessly aggressive, just not hyper aggressive – will always be the best way, as it was when they shattered the first incarnation of Bazball at the 2015 World Cup.

There’s little doubt England can score big, fast runs against bowlers as good as Australia’s, because they did it against South Africa last year. The question is whether they can do so amid the brain-scrambling, sanity-questioning intensity of an Ashes series. But the same is true of Australia’s bowlers. In an otherwise dominant series four years ago, when they had England’s batters in a vice most of the time, a great attack lost the noggin when Ben Stokes went berserk at Headingley.

Australia would love to puncture England’s new-age serenity by inducing a few old-fashioned collapses and see how their bohemian vibe survives being plugged by 300 runs at fortress Edgbaston. Both teams are world-class at riding the wave; the ability to respond to the choppier stuff will probably decide who wins the series.

The Future of Test Cricket

England has spoken about the result being secondary to the process. Yet it was abundantly clear from Stokes’ press conference yesterday that his team is determined to do something astonishing this summer: make the bucket hat fashionable.

But seriously folks. England has scored at 4.85 runs per over since Stokes became full-time captain last summer. Their overall run-rate under him (including a Test in 2020) is 4.65. The next highest of anybody who has captained more than two Tests is Steve Waugh with 3.66. Under Cummins, Australia has gone at 3.52 per over. Admirably aggressive by any measure, except Bazball.

A recurring theme of the most exciting Ashes series is aggression: sporting aggression, that is, be it paint-stripping pace bowling, extravagant wristspin, or, most crucially, the once rare sight of English batters trying to hit sixes. There will be no wristspin genius this summer, on the pitch or in the commentary box, but the other ingredients are all there.

It could – sod it, should – be a classic. It’s hard to recall an Ashes series in which both teams have been so comfortable in their own skin beforehand. We know from experience that there is always plenty of bluff when England plays Australia; we’re about to find out just how much.

Live Coverage Details

The match starts at 11 am BST (8 pm AEST), with the toss at 10:30/7:30.

Keywords: Cricket–sports, cricket, The Ashes, England vs Australia, live coverage