Mid-series report card: Cummins and Stokes set pace in Ashes series

Leeds: It was as if even the heavens needed a breather after 12 breakneck days of this Ashes series. Rain shrouded Headingley from about 10am and hung around for some six hours.

The Western Terrace, purportedly to be filled with fans brandishing hair razors at Alex Carey after an erroneous barbershop story peddled by the former England captain Alastair Cook on the BBC, had to wait until after 5pm to resume singing.

When play finally resumed under heavy skies and floodlights, Australia soon lost Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey to the wobbling ball of Chris Woakes, before Mark Wood’s pace did for Mitchell Starc. Pat Cummins did not last long either, but Todd Murphy and Scott Boland helped Travis Head set England 251 to win.

The truncated day was an opportune moment to ponder what has been learned over those first 12 days, in terms of the performances, the conditions and the noise around an Ashes series that has undoubtedly caught public imagination in ways not seen here since 2005.

A few of those conclusions?

Pat Cummins is still the world’s best fast bowler

As he sometimes does, Cummins took a little while to warm into this tour. He was somewhat short of his best against India in the World Test Championship final and gave Zak Crawley something to hit on the first morning of the Ashes at Edgbaston. But by the time his yorker screeched under Ollie Pope’s bat in the second innings, Cummins was up and firing. His domination of Joe Root - who has only once made a century in the 17 innings he has faced Cummins while being dismissed by him 10 times - is comparable to Stuart Broad’s success against David Warner.

Part of what makes Cummins so good is durability of both body and mind. His resilience at Edgbaston, conjuring a victory on the final evening when players on both sides were exhausted, was matched by how he brought his best on the first two days at Headingley just three days after Lord’s. The reward was 6-91, Cummins’ first five-wicket haul in England. This was not a reflection of any past struggles, more that as this series goes on, Cummins will be more important to Australia’s chances than ever.

Ben Stokes is the best tactician in the game

Before the series, James Anderson spoke about how getting full use of Stokes’ “wicked cricket brain” as the biggest difference to the England team since he was made captain a little over a year ago. That has manifested itself in all sorts of ways so far. It’s true Stokes was criticised for declaring on day one of the series, but that decision ended up giving England time to win the game if not for Cummins’ intervention. His field settings have been consistently nifty, balancing defence and attack with far more subtlety than Cummins can muster. And the belief within the England team to follow Stokes into battle is absolute.

That’s all without mentioning the passages in which Stokes’ brain gets its best use of all: when he is batting. After a quick exit in the first innings of the series, Stokes’ influence has grown, culminating in a pair of outstanding innings at Lord’s and Headingley that reopened Australian scars from this ground in 2019. So far, there has been little evidence that the Australians can outthink Stokes when he bats; only that it is more likely to be the captain’s body that ultimately lets him down.

David Warner called it right when foreshadowing retirement

Warner’s status was arguably the biggest question for Australia before the series, and his projection of a January 2024 Test match finish at the SCG started the tour with a jolt. It would be unfair to say Warner has struggled as much this time as he did in 2019, making a trio of vital contributions to the first two Tests alongside the serenely prolific Usman Khawaja. But his reversion to complete helplessness against Broad on a quicker surface in Leeds was a sign that Warner’s Test days are rightly coming to an end.

When defeated in the second innings, having edged Broad with a slightly closed bat face, Warner gestured as if to say “I couldn’t do much there”. His biggest value for Australia beyond this series will be in twin World Cup assignments in India for ODIs and the West Indies and United States for Twenty20 next year, either side of more Big Bash League appearances and perhaps some time in the UAE league where a team is owned by GMR group, the wing of Delhi Capitals that sponsors Warner.

Mark Wood is the biggest swing factor in the series

John Snow’s old line that “speed defeats reactions” was hard to avoid when watching Wood dismantle the Australians on day one. Bowling consistently in the 150kph range and also swinging the ball, he was too much for Khawaja and the Australian tail, as the Headingley crowd thrilled to his wholehearted effort. He was not quite as quick but just as important on the second evening, cornering the Australians into errors against Moeen Ali at the other end.

Australia’s players were staggered that Wood was left out for Edgbaston, something he described as purely a selection decision, before some elbow swelling ruled him out of Lord’s. For a team that has risen to the top of world cricket largely through its possession of a deep and high class pace battery, the Australian struggles against Wood have provided a reminder that global supremacy could slip away from them in coming years if other countries are wise to the production of similar speed merchants.

English cricket and world cricket are at odds

Whether Jonny Bairstow’s wounded reaction to being stumped by Alex Carey, the abominable scenes in the Lord’s Long Room soon after, or the dog whistling by Brendon McCullum or Ben Stokes about Australia not playing within the spirit of the game, it was clear England tried to drum up antipathy for the tourists after that pivotal moment of the Lord’s Test. But what was striking was not so much that noise, but the lack of any global agreement that Cummins and Carey had done anything wrong.

This was a huge contrast to 2018 and the Newlands scandal referenced so often in the English press this week. That event brought universal condemnation on Australia’s players after some years of poor, antagonistic behaviour and “headbutting the line”. In 2023, however, Cummins spoke with a clear conscience of a changed team, and aside from the indignation of English fans, there was precious little to be found elsewhere.

Tellingly, former players were universally of the view that Bairstow’s stumping was fair. The Australian public was squarely behind Cummins and Carey, and so too were the rest of the world. English cricket, it turned out, were the outliers this time.

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