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Ashes first Test pitch appears to give England exactly what they want
England appear to have laid their cards on the table already as the world gets its first look at the pitch for the opening Ashes Test.
Andrew McMurtry
@AndrewMcMurtry
Cricket: The World Test Championship winners now boast the top 3 batters on the ICC rankings. Steve Smith holds number one, then Marnus Labuschagne, then Travis Head
England appear to have got exactly what they asked for as the Ashes prepares to kick off on Friday night Australian time.
The world got its first look at the pitch ahead of the first Test of the highly anticipated series with the pitch appearing to be a batters paradise — just like England wanted.
In April, English skipper Ben Stokes called for
“flat, fast” wickets so the team may continue its “Bazball” approach which has been so successful.
After its horror 4-0 loss in Australia,
England moved on from former coach Chris Silverwood and hired
New Zealand legend Brendan McCullum, who has turned the side around.
Before McCullum’s appointment, England had won one of their previous 17 tests, and have won 11 of 13 Tests using the tactic.
Last year, England set the highest average run-rate in Test cricket history, scoring at 4.13 across their 15 Tests in 2022.
And after three Tests in 2023, including two against New Zealand and one against Ireland, England have scored at an average of over six runs per over across 316.1 overs of batting.
The curators were told to produce pitches conducive to the English batters and Stokes said the groundsmen were all in.
“We’ve been very clear, especially with the ground staff around England, about what type of wickets we want,” Stokes told
Sky Sports in April.
”And they’ve been very responsive to us which has been good.
“We want fast, flat wickets. We want to go out there and score quickly. It brings their (Australia‘s) guys in: if they’ve got fast wickets to bowl on then they’ll be happy with that as well.”
England have pledged to continue playing Bazball. Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images
However, Edgbaston ground staff claimed they had not received any direct requests from England and have prepared the pitch as normal.
Senior correspondent of
The Cricketer magazine George Dobell shared a picture of the pitch and fans were quick to claim it looked like batting first would be a huge advantage as wickets should be at a premium.
Some even claimed that it would be a spinning wicket with the pitch appearing to be very dry from the image of the pitch.
But Dobell said he believed there was 13mm of grass as he shared a first look at the pitch, although there was still nearly three days before the toss.
And England are bristling with confidence, announcing its team two days out rather than waiting for the morning of the Test, with the nation’s fastest bowler Mark Wood left out of the side in favour of Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson.
