With Australia winning the Ashes by 4-1 against visitors England with a five-wicket win in the Sydney Test, it meant that Australia maintained their record of winning the Ashes as hosts since 2011 intact. While Australia have won seven Ashes series out of 14 Ashes this century with England winning five Ashes, the Aussies have not won an Ashes in England since 2001. Australia had drawn the last two Ashes series in England 2-2 and former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath believes that winning the Ashes in England should be Australia’s next target and is the next Mt Everest for the Australian side.
“The next goal for this Australia side will be winning in England in 2027. We have drawn the past two series in the UK 2-2 to retain the Ashes, so it has been job done, but we haven’t won there since 2001. It is a big thing for Australia to go there and actually walk away with the win. Australia definitely have the team to win. There won’t be too many retirements between now and then. Australia will want Cummins back and bowling well, and they will want Hazlewood back. England have also seen what Boland is capable of doing. The way that Head is going about things is exceptional, so it’ll be interesting to see how he goes out there. For me, Australia should have won in 2023, but England in their own backyard have a different self-belief. They know how to play in those conditions and have the home advantage. A win would be massive for Australia. They’ve won everywhere apart from India and England. I’d like to think Australia will win for the quality of the players they have. That is their next goal and their Everest you could say,” McGrath wrote in his column for BBC.
With Australian captain Pat Cummins missing the first two Tests in the series and opting for rest for the last two Tests in Ashes apart from Josh Hazelwood missing the series due to injury, the hosts saw Mitchell Starc taking the leading role among Aussie bowlers with a total of 31 wickets in the series. Pacers Scott Boland and Michael Naser took 20 and15 wickets respectively in the series and McGrath showers his praise on the Australian bowling attack. “They did the basics well and deserved their 4-1 series victory. You look at the Australia team compared to what England thought they were going to come up against with Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon – and the only one they’ve really had to face is Starc because of injuries to the others. But the guys that came in really stepped up and you’ve got to give credit to Starc for the way he stepped up and performed. He really took the load to finish the series as the leading wicket-taker with 31. It was incredible. He was supported well by Scott Boland and Michael Neser and as an attack it was just good, solid Test cricket. They bowled good areas and built pressure – and that is everything you need to do at Test level. To be honest, I don’t know if England took them for granted a little bit and if they thought it isn’t the same attack and they thought it was going to be easier. However, Australia were just tougher and gave England nothing,” McGrath wrote further.
Australian batsman Travis Head was the top scorer for the team in the series with a total of 629 runs at an average of 62.90. Head, who had earlier batted in the middle order for Australia in Tests, opened the batting for the hosts after Usman Khwaja suffered back spasms ahead of the opening Test at Perth. McGrath saw Head’s promotion to the opening slot as the turning moment of the Ashes. “The big turning moment in the series for me was when Travis Head was promoted to opener in the first Test after Usman Khawaja was struggling with back spasms. It just set a whole different tone to Australia’s batting – it got them going and the positivity then just flowed down the rest of the order. Those things were massive. Alex Carey also put on an absolute masterclass coming up to the stumps to Boland and Neser – it was brilliant. Then if you look at the fielding and the catching – they say catches win matches and it is very true. The amount of catches that England dropped, even if England caught them, this series would have been completely different. It is those basic things – that mental toughness and just playing good, solid Test cricket day in, day out and not letting the other team have a sniff – that’s what Australia did well,” wrote McGrath.
