Manchester: Not even Bazball might be enough to get a result for England in a Test match the hosts must win to keep the Ashes alive, leaving captain Ben Stokes to open the possibility of something like a cricket version of “Madchester” in order to prevail.
Having slipped to 0-2 in the series, Stokes’ side pulled out a superb chase to emerge victorious at Headingley, but in the north-west it may be the weather as much as Australia that poses the biggest threat to 2-2.
Ben Stokes clad in his Stone Roses-style bucket hat.Credit: AP
Steady rain set in around Old Trafford on match eve, and further hefty showers are predicted for days four and five of the Test. Stokes admitted that England may need to push the boundaries of Test cricket even further in the circumstances.
“You never want to look too much into the weather, but I think in the position we find ourselves in we find we might have to,” Stokes said. “We know we have to win this game to take it to the last game for us to have a chance of getting the urn back, so going into the last game we were 2-0 down and knowing we had to win that.
“I think that helped us a little bit, and maybe again with the weather predicted, that might bring more out of us again, knowing we might have to push the game on even more than we normally do. If the weather is what it’s predicted to be, then we might have to.”
Madchester was the term used to describe the rave music culture in Manchester in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and the bucket hats adopted by England this summer are drawn from that scene – popularised by Mani from the Stone Roses.
England may feel they have to play with a similar level of abandon to that seen in the Hacienda nightclub back then, although in truth the Leeds Test was played at an extremely rapid pace – it occupied fewer than 240 overs, less than three full days’ play.
For Australia, the prospect of England pushing to move the game forward between the showers should provide more opportunities to take advantage, as was the case at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
“Hope so, it would be fun,” Cummins said of the prospect. “Prepared for anything, really. We’ll see how it plays out. We’ve already seen a lot of different things from both teams this series. I’m sure this one will be another cracker with some random stuff thrown up.
“The first preference is always to try and win. We drew the 2019 series and we’ve all come back pretty clear that we want to win this one, so I think it’s one of those things whereas the game progresses you maybe start working out how risky you want to be. But looking at the forecast it looks ok, so I’m sure we’ll get a match in.
Pat Cummins has his eyes firmly on the Ashes prize.Credit: AP
“I don’t really trust the forecast, I think we’re going to get a full game in.“
England’s best asset in their pursuit of a quick result to level the series will be Mark Wood, the fastest bowler on either side and the pivotal player in Leeds.
“I think having pace is a massive advantage for any team and it definitely does help,” Stokes said. “When you have someone bowling like Woody, as fast as he does, you look at the partnerships that you have as a bowling group. It’s amazing that Woody might not be the one getting wickets but the wickets can fall at the other end. You put those two together and that’s how you look at it.
“You can look at 10-over spells and the person at the other end could get two for whatever and Woody might not get any but the wicket at the other end definitely sometimes comes from the pressure applied from the other end.
“I think the way in which I used Woody in the first innings is something that we’ll look to do again. It’s always nice for an individual coming into a series like this to get off to a good start, so it would be nice to be able to use Woody in short, sharp bursts like I initially planned to in Headingley.”
Pace bowler Mark Wood is a wholehearted competitor for England and made a difference in the third Test.Credit: Getty Images
Either way this game goes, both Stokes and Cummins acknowledged the sense of momentousness that has grown around the series over the past four weeks.
“If we win this one then going into the last game at 2-2, it would be hard not to say this is the best men’s Ashes series in a long time, if not the best,” Stokes said. “Overall, take away Australia and England, the cricket that’s been played has been absolutely brilliant.
“Everyone who’s watched at the ground or at home on TV has just really enjoyed the cricket that’s been played. There’ve been some pretty special moments out on the cricket ground, some special individual performances as well. I guess that’s what you want from sport.”
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