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Travis Head v Harry Brook
Before Bazball, there was Travis Head. He was the one playing on fast-forward during the 2021-22 Ashes, sprinting to 152 at the Gabba in a career-shifting innings. The southpaw has since slashed tons in two finals against India, excelled in challenging Australian conditions, and can break out of a lean patch with a chainsaw-wielding knock. Never mind his three consecutive single-figure scores during Australia’s 3-1 win over India a year ago. He’d already hit consecutive hundreds to turn the direction of the series.
Harry Brook, Head’s counterpart at No 5, plays a similarly wild game. This modern duel feels more significant than the storied battle of Steve Smith v Joe Root, particularly if they face the seamer-friendly scenes that make middle-order counterattacks decisive. Brook has remarkable consistency, with seven away hundreds after four Test tours (albeit across two countries: Pakistan and New Zealand). Head has familiarity, averaging a touch over 53 in Australia since the start of 2022. Both will be pelted with the short ball and endure comical dismissals. They will probably decide the series, too.
Pat Cummins v Joe Root
Pat Cummins’s absence from the first Test due to injury will end an impressive streak of fast-bowling resilience. The Australia captain has played in 19 of the past 20 Ashes Tests, only missing Adelaide four years ago because of his close contact with a positive Covid case. Leading his highlight reel are the deliveries to Root, Cummins’s relentlessness in and around off-stump helping him to 11 dismissals of the England batter. The pick of them remains a rattler at Old Trafford in 2019, Root beaten despite presenting the straightest of bats.
Scott Boland will be primarily responsible for finding Root’s outside edge in Perth, but Cummins is bound to feature down the line, resuming a pretty simple rivalry: Australia’s best bowler against England’s best batter. The ball to watch out for is the one Cummins sent down at Lord’s two years ago, finding serious lift to turn the right-hander’s backfoot push into a fatal prod. Root will have to deal with that threat and the noise over his existing record in Australia. Should he be in the nineties, closing in on that elusive first Test hundred in the country, you know Cummins will return at the other end, refusing to allow entry.
Usman Khawaja v Jofra Archer
It took Jofra Archer three balls to strike on his Test comeback in the summer: over the wicket, nipping away, the edge taken from the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal, an opener with a proper record. Usman Khawaja also brings prestige, having led the scoring charts in the 2023 Ashes. His revival over the past four years has been stirring; since being recalled at the age of 35, he has doubled his tally of Test hundreds to 16.
But a decline in returns, married up with his age – he turns 39 during the third Test – has prompted questions over his future. Alongside getting the Jasprit Bumrah treatment against India, a lack of stability at the other end has surely not helped. Jake Weatherald is down to become his sixth opening partner since the retirement of David Warner. Archer is in a strong position to thrive on this volatility, his threat heightened when he moves the ball away from left-handers. Only two of his nine wickets against India in the summer were righties. It feels harsh to burden Archer with so much expectation as he prepares for his first away Test match in nearly five years, but his breakout 2019 series still sticks in the mind.
England v five-match Test series
The two-Test tour is a blight on the world game but it also means South Africa, after three thrilling days in Kolkata, are on the verge of a famous triumph in India. England will be a fair way off history even if they win in Perth, three victories the probable requirement to capture the urn.
For all the talk surrounding their supposed lack of preparation, Ben Stokes’s side have won the first Test on their past five tours. Instead, England have struggled to last the distance, having not won a five-match series since 2018, squandering leads in their past two against India. Beyond keeping fit, their pack of seamers – hyped up because of their pace – face the challenge of maintaining their speeds come Sydney. It would be a victory of sorts should England avoid having to call for reinforcements and, in particular, if Stokes stays the course.
