On top of the world... but Australia display frailties ahead of big test

IN HIS excellent new book, On The Ashes, the Australian journalist Gideon Haigh summarises the nation's historic cricketing philosophy.

- Malik Ouzia

"Australian cricket doesn't have much time for elegance," he writes. "It looks unserious, brittle, even a little effete.

Australians favour aggression - bustling, bristling, business-like. They like to think of themselves as all about effect and output; it's not how but how many." This England have, of course, made their business not merely how and how many, but how quickly as well, their brand, with bat in hand at least, a sort of bastardised Olympianism: faster (scoring), higher (chases), longer (hits).

It is a contrast that has had these Ashes, which start at Edgbaston on Friday, set up as a shuddering clash of styles for some time, made all the more so by the vindication both sides have already acquired in their methods.

For England, 11 wins in 13 Tests have transformed an ailing culture. For Australia, yesterday's World Test Championship Final triumph over India represented the climax of something more sustained. It is Test cricket's now formally-crowned conquerors against its self-proclaimed saviours, and if it was already clear that the latter are unshakeably wed to their one way of playing, then The Oval this weekend reaffirmed that Pat Cummins's men will not be lured from theirs, either.