Root Versus Cummins
Who Will Win? – The Full Toss
Cricket in the English winter is an interesting spectacle. Devoid of any home action, badgers like me turn our attention overseas. Entertaining as it can be, winter cricket has always seemed a bit off-key and missing something.
England and Australia’s time-old battle for the earn resumes. Scott Boland with a Dukes ball is a terrifying prospect. The Ashes therefore promises to be an engrossing affair.
Two class teams, worlds apart in style, going head-to-head in the toughest of contests.
“One of the most satisfying wickets of my career” boasted Pat in a 2018 interview. There have, of course, been exceptions to this general rule. Root soaked up the pressure to post a fighting fifty in the famous Headingley Test of 2019.
Over the past decade, the golden boy of English cricket has broken record after record on the way to becoming a modern great. Things have obviously picked up a little since.
Yet should he be on song, Root could certainly be the difference between the two sides come June. There are, of course, other crucial matchups. Ben Stokes has shown a particular disdain for spin in his short tenure as captain.
Both should be in decent form this time around: Jimmy has defied the odds for the millionth time this winter while Smith demolished the West Indian and South African attacks disdainfully down under, although he’s currently finding runs harder to come by in India.
The pair’s last meeting on English shores was about as one-sided an affair as one can imagine – Broad demolishing the disgraced opener to claim his wicket in seven out of the ten innings he played.
Warner averaged an agonising 9.5 that summer, scoring just sixty-one runs in the five Tests. England will need their best player in form and firing but Cummins will try to spoil the party.