‘Some different plans’: Australia to revamp Stokes approach

Stopping Ben Stokes tearing the Ashes apart is central to Australia’s hopes of winning a series in England for the first time in 22 years.

The England captain and talisman may be hampered by a chronic left knee injury that prevents him from bowling, but the Australians have struggled for answers when he has unleashed with the bat.

Australia’s best bowler in their three-wicket loss at Headingley on Sunday, Mitchell Starc, who claimed 5-78, admitted he was lucky to dismiss Stokes in the second innings for just 13. And he said the Australians would plan something different for Stokes in the fourth and fifth Tests.

“Bit of a freebie there, a strangle down the leg side. The way he’s been batting, I won’t be handing that back any time soon,” said Starc. “Nice one to get there to take a bit of momentum, but not quite enough.

“It was nice to get him early, but we spoke about getting him while he was with another batter the way he’s been playing with the tail. It’s always nice to get someone of his calibre early, but obviously, one we’re going to come up with some different plans for in the last two Tests.”

Stokes has played two of the innings of the series – 155 in the second Test at Lord’s, with nine fours and nine sixes, which almost won England the match, and 80 in the first innings at Headingley when he was last man out, dragging England back from the brink at 7-142 in a relatively low-scoring match.

While Usman Khawaja remains the leading run-scorer in the series with 356 runs at an average of 59, Stokes is second with 309 runs at almost 52.

Australia lead the series 2-1 and the good news is that Old Trafford has been kind to the Australians for decades. They haven’t lost there since “Botham’s Ashes” in 1981, nine years before Starc was born.

After the heartbreak of Headingley four years ago, when Stokes single-handedly won the match with an amazing, unbeaten 135 after all seemed lost, Australia went to Manchester and won by 185 runs.

“We’ve got some good memories, good juju from Manchester last time,” Starc said. Remarkably it was the only Test Starc played in the 2019 series.

“There was a big [focus] on economy rates last time, which plenty of guys spoke about throughout the tour, and we all bought into that, and that was something that worked really for us to retain the Ashes then,” he said. “It affected my approach certainly going back to Australia and losing some air speed. It took away from some of my strengths and some of the roles that I play in our attack.

“I wasn’t going to change that this time and if that meant I didn’t play, so be it. I was going to stick to my strengths and what I bring to the attack, rather than trying to be someone like Josh [Hazlewood] or someone like Pat [Cummins], because that’s not going to complement the group.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been too concerned about economy rates. I’m worried about my strike rate if anything. I haven’t heard those guys speak about it at all. It’s been the nature of this series is there have been some really fast outfields, some good wickets, both sides’ scoring rates have been high.

“The way they’ve been playing over the last period of time means they’re naturally going to be faster scorers. Even some of our scoring rates and strike rates as batters have been a bit higher throughout this series, which speaks to flatter, truer wickets and faster outfields. It’s never really been a concern of mine, my role is to attack and take wickets, that’s shown in my strike rate. I’ll keep getting better that way.”

Starc now has 46 wickets in England from 11 Tests across a decade at an average of 29 and strike rate of just 48 balls a wicket, a better strike rate in England than Dennis Lillee (50).

Across an 80-Test career Starc has a strike rate of 49. Of the 39 players to claimed 100 or more wickets for Australia only one player has better, current captain Cummins with a strike rate of 47. Lillee and Glenn McGrath have an overall strike rate of 52 and Brett Lee 53.

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