The “maverick and open-minded” English team will be looking to pepper World Test Championship final centurion Travis Head with short-pitched stuff in the upcoming Ashes, assistant coach Paul Collingwood has warned.
India’s quicks did try to trouble Man of the Match Head in the game at The Oval, but only when he was in the 90s. Head went on to score 163. The likes of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood though will try and execute the short stuff right from the onset, Collingwood hinted.
“It (short ball)’s a part of our game plan. You have seen in the past year we have struck on certain pitches at certain times against players who may not be comfortable with that kind of bowling.
“Whether it’s Broad, Anderson, (Ben) Stokes, Robinson or Mark Wood, any of our bowlers can make use of it,” Collingwood said at a virtual media interaction on Tuesday ahead of the first Ashes Test in Birmingham from Friday.
“We actually used it with the new ball in Pakistan and took Pakistan by surprise. This team is in many ways very maverick and very open-minded in what they can do, not just with the bat but also with the ball.”
The jury is out on whether England’s Bazball (aggressive style of batting) would be effective against the Australian bowling attack. But England, as Collingwood stressed, won’t change their approach.
“Australia will take confidence from winning the Test Championship. So yeah, we’ll come up against a team that’s very confident. But even if we were to lose the Ashes, I think people would appreciate we had gone about the game in a manner that has been made much more entertaining for the spectators,” Collingwood said.
Elaborating on the “vision” of this Stokes-led England side, the former England white-ball captain said: “Every team we’ve come up against since last year questioned whether we could carry on with this aggressive style of play. But players have found ways of coming up against high-class, quality bowling in different conditions.
“The Ashes is a part of the journey where the team wants to get to. The vision of this team is to make Test cricket more exciting so that it can survive.”
Moeen’s comeback
A fair amount of attention will also be on off-spinner all-rounder Moeen Ali, who’s making a Test comeback after retiring from the format in September 2021.
“Obviously, the skill that he (Moeen) brings in terms of his all-round game is exceptional. In terms of him not playing Test cricket for a long time, it doesn’t matter what colour the ball is. Whether it’s white or red, we’ll be asking him for the same approach. He loves to play the attacking style,” Collingwood said.
1st Ashes Test live on Sony Sports Ten 5 & Sony Sports Ten 5 HD channels at 3.30pm IST from Friday.
