Next-in-line ready for baptism of fire; ‘Bazball’ fail that could prove costly — Fifth Test Talkers

Has a curator ever been under more pressure?

All eyes were on the SCG pitch this week after the Boxing Day Test wrapped up in less than 32 hours courtesy of some reckless batting and a bowler-friendly deck, which later received an ‘unsatisfactory’ grade from the ICC.

MCG head curator Matt Page has confessed he was in a “state of shock” watching the carnage unfold during this week’s Boxing Day Test. More than 90,000 fans were expected for the sold-out third day in Melbourne, with Cricket Australia expected to lose millions from the shortened contest.

With two Ashes Tests this summer wrapping up in less than two days, the Sydney curators will be desperate to produce a deck that provides a fair contest between bat and ball. Even Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the match needed to last at least three days during Thursday’s function with the teams at Kirribilli House.

“I don’t think a groundsman has ever been under as much pressure as the guy here this week,” England captain Ben Stokes told reporters in Sydney on Saturday afternoon.

“We try and act like we know what we’re doing when we’re looking down at the pitch and rubbing it and, you know, knocking it. No one really has a clue. To be honest, you can only just try and give yourself the best chance.

“We all play a good game by looking like we know what we’re doing when we’re looking at the wicket.”

The SCG pitch looked fairly green in the days leading into the New Year’s Test, but head curator Adam Lewis assured reporters there was no cause for concern. He confirmed the pitch would have 6mm of grass, down from 10mm for the Melbourne Test.

Last summer’s Sydney Test between Australia and India was a low-scoring affair dominated by the bowlers, wrapping up before tea on day three. Lewis confessed he and his team took some learnings from last summer’s result.

“We always get nervous this time of year,” Lewis said.

“This is our grand final. We work months leading into our Test preparation.

“We’re just excited to get there. The only thing we can’t control is the weather. We’re just trying to prepare a pitch that’s a great balance for bat and ball.

“We’re really happy with the pitch at the moment … I’m really comfortable where we’re sitting.

“We want it to be a five-day Test.”

MURPHY READY FOR BAZBALL TEST

If selected for the New Year’s Test, spinner Todd Murphy should expect a trial by fire at the SCG this week.

Nathan Lyon’s hamstring injury opened the door for Murphy’s return to the Test set-up, with the spectacled Victorian missing selection for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Australian interim captain Steve Smith couldn’t guarantee Murphy’s selection for the Sydney Test while speaking to reporters on Saturday morning, but he remains a live chance of making his maiden international appearance on home soil this week.

However, the 25-year-old is fully aware that England’s batters will go after him the moment he comes into the attack.

“That’s the mantra of our team, to try and put pressure on people,” England opener Zak Crawley told reporters on Friday.

“Todd’s a very good bowler, but I could envisage us trying to put some pressure on him, as we would all their bowlers.

“That’s going to come with some risks, and if it’s turning, he’s definitely going to be a threat.”

Murphy played a similar role during the 2023 Ashes campaign in the United Kingdom, replacing the injured Lyon for the second half of the tour. The off-spinner bowled commendably at Headingley and The Oval, but still conceded 4.72 runs per over.

With an additional two summers of Sheffield Shield cricket under his belt, he feels more prepared for another Bazball challenge.

“I’d say that’s a guarantee if I played, that they would be attacking against me,” Murphy told reporters at the SCG on Thursday.

“I think that’s just how they’ve been playing, it’s been positive cricket, and I think they’d be no different if I played and was bowling to them.

“You’re always a chance when guys are coming after you … if that presents out there, then no issues.”

A generation ago, the SCG was a spinner’s paradise, with Australia often picking two tweakers for the Sydney contest, but that’s no longer the case. Since 2018, the SCG has become a tweaker’s graveyard, boasting the highest average for spinners among Australia’s regular Test venues.

“I’d love the old school SCG,” Smith lamented.

“Flat for two days. Footmarks starting to come in. Cracks opening. Reverse swing. Spin late in the game, tricky to bat. Slow, low wicket. Fielders in front of the wicket. That’s the ideal when you come here when you think about the SCG in the past.

“But I don’t think it’s been that for as long as I’ve been playing unfortunately.”

“It’s one of Nathan Lyon’s worst grounds in Australia.”

Since the start of 2021, spinners have averaged 49.18 in Tests in Sydney compared to 27.72 for the seamers, but Murphy is adamant the SCG deck “definitely can spin”.

“We’ve played on some BBL wickets here where it has taken spin,” Murphy said.

“I’ve only played a couple of Shield games and don’t think it’s ever done anything extraordinary out there. I don’t think recently it’s been massive spin, but there’s still been a big part of the game that spin played.”

‘BAZBALL’ FOUNDER’S HIGH STAKES IN SYDNEY

It’s impossible to know exactly how much Brendan McCullum’s future rides on the result of this fifth and final Ashes Test at the SCG, but it would be a reasonable assumption to suggest he’ll be feeling the pressure regardless.

After breaking a 15-year Test drought on Australian soil in Melbourne last week, the Poms will be riding tangible momentum into Sydney’s series finale.

Unfortunately though, the saying ‘too little, too late’ applies here, having failed to win a Test while the series was still alive. It’s the asterisk that sits next to that victory, for now, and a win that will look far more legitimate with a second one next to it on a less volatile surface.

McCullum was appointed England’s coach over three and a half years ago, and regardless of what is said to the public from within, there’s not a shred of doubt that this Australian Ashes was his — as well as England’s — defining series under his tenure.

It’s one that has so far failed considerably, but a convincing win in Sydney will leave notable hope in the hearts of fans and pundits that he is still the right man for the job.

At the other end of the spectrum, a heavy defeat in a similar manner to Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide earlier this series could sound the alarm bells on McCullum, despite the very tight relationship he and skipper Ben Stokes have.

“No, I don’t think so. We’ve always been very forth with each other. That’s where the relationship we’ve built in a professional capacity works really well,” Stokes told reporters on the eve of the fifth Test.

“We’ve always been two people who have always challenged each other, and that hasn’t changed on this trip … without discussion, I don’t feel like you get anywhere.”

Beyond the scoreline, it’s the manner of England’s defeats that has done the damage. Three heavy losses, repeated collapses against the new ball, and a bowling attack that has struggled to sustain pressure across long spells have all chipped away at the ‘Bazball’ philosophy that was so highly touted for Australian conditions.

There is doubt McCullum is a highly-respected, much-loved figure within the England dressing room — make no mistake. But a fourth loss on Australian soil this summer will likely leave the New Zealand great on shaky ground heading into next month’s T20 World Cup and England’s home summer.

NEW YEAR’S CURSE STRIKES YET AGAIN

It’s almost an inevitability now.

Rain is predicted to hit Sydney this week, with the first two days of the New Year’s Test expected to be impacted by showers.

According to AccuWeather, the New South Wales capital will experience “a strong thunderstorm in the afternoon” on Sunday before “a few showers” on Monday. There’s a 55 per cent chance of rain on both days.

Thankfully, the remaining three days of the New Year’s Test should be dry.

Sydney Tests have lost 26 days due to washouts since the start of the 1880s, which is 17 more than the next highest figure among Australian venues – Melbourne with nine – while about one in three days of Test cricket at the SCG experience some sort of rain delay.

Weather delays in Sydney are common because the city boasts the highest average yearly rainfall of any of the major capitals in Australia, more than 1200mm every year. The next highest is Brisbane with 1037mm.

“Melbourne tends to be a bit drier in summer than winter, whereas Sydney is the other way round, partly because Sydney gets a lot of its weather from thunderstorms and those thunderstorms are more likely to be more severe in summer,” Dr Andrew King, a climate scientist from the University of Melbourne, explained to The Guardian last year.

“Summers in Sydney are a bit wetter than winters. But it might not always feel like that because more of the rain is falling in thunderstorms and less in these long wet days.”

Fingers crossed.

AUSSIE ROOKIE’S ASHES STRUGGLES

Since migrating to Tasmania in 2023, Jake Weatherald has become one of the most consistent performers in the Sheffield Shield, with his shadow-batting perhaps partly to thank.

The 2024/25 summer proved a breakout campaign for the Darwin product, finishing as the competition’s leading run-scorer while maintaining a strike rate of 68.27, comfortably the highest figure among openers in the competition. The majority of his runs came at Bellerive Oval, arguably the most bowler-friendly deck in Australia.

Weatherald’s timing was impeccable – Australia was still searching for a long-term replacement for David Warner ahead of this summer’s Ashes campaign, so the 31-year-old received a baggy green in November, making his Test debut during the series opener in Perth.

In his second Test, he cracked a 78-ball 72 during a pink-ball contest in Brisbane, his maiden fifty in the game’s longest format. After a two-year merry-go-round at the top of the order, it appeared as though Australia had finally unearthed Warner’s successor.

However, Weatherald posted scores of 18, 1, 10 and 5 in his following two Tests. He opted not to review an LBW dismissal that had pitched outside leg stump in Adelaide, while during the MCG Boxing Day Test he left alone a delivery from rival captain Ben Stokes that thudded into the top of off stump.

He also has a habit of falling over his front leg, something England speedster Jofra Archer exposed during the first two Tests.

Having averaged 20.85 this summer, Weatherald has failed to cement his place in the Test starting XI, with the likes of Matthew Renshaw, Sam Konstas and Campbell Kellaway waiting in the wings. Following this week’s New Year’s Ashes contest in Sydney, Australia doesn’t have another Test match scheduled until August, leaving him susceptible to facing the axe if he flops during the second half of the Sheffield Shield campaign.

The jury remains out on whether he has the credentials of a long-term Test opener, although it should be acknowledged that several top-order players, including Marnus Labuschagne and Ben Duckett, have struggled this summer.

“He came and did really well. Now he’s had a few innings that he missed out,” the retiring Usman Khawaja told reporters at the SCG on Friday.

“Hopefully he’ll get back on the horse and score runs again, but Test cricket’s a different beast.”

Ironically, chief selector George Bailey, a fellow Tasmanian, also made his Test debut during a triumphant Ashes series on home soil, but was dropped following the final match in Sydney, never picked again.

The sympathetic Bailey may not want Weatherald to follow in his footsteps.