A Scrap Between Ashes Also-Rans

Tim Wigmore questions the validity of the hyper-coverage given to two teams who are well off the world No.1 spot

- Tim Wigmore

And so it begins, again: the hype and phoney war that is the prelude to every Ashes series, home and away. In a sense it is all justified: the Ashes is the last series that is always played over five Test matches and, for lovers of the longest format, a unique event to savour.

All of this is well and good, but it cannot obscure what the Ashes is, when you strip back the hype. It is a mid-table clash between two eminently flawed teams. Even in a distinctly underwhelming era in the quality of Test cricket throughout the world, neither side possess any consistency.

Just take a glance at the ICC’s Test rankings.

First there is England, lying in third place. That sounds respectable enough, but the rating calculated by the ICC’s bots perhaps provides a better indication of England’s true quality: they have 105 points, a world away from the 125 of India at the top. Indeed, England are closer to Pakistan, in seventh place, than India at No.1, which is a fair indication of their true quality today.

Then glance a little further down the table. You will see Australia, they of the much-vaunted pace attack, all the way down in fifth place – fractionally below New Zealand, their Trans-Tasman cousins, who have one-sixth of Australia’s population and cricketing budget. Suddenly, it becomes impossible to sustain the hype.