BBC Sport’s cricket fans reckon only Cameron Green would deserve a spot in a combined Ashes XI with Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc the other Aussies to make the cut.
With hubris over the Bazball era reaching unprecedented levels, the English are clearly drinking Brendon McCullum’s Kool-Aid in the lead-up to the five-Test series which begins in Perth in a month.
The BBC Sport poll pitted the likely first-choice XIs of each team and the mainly England fans who voted plumped for Joe Root ahead of Steve Smith in the No.4 position as well as both of their openers in Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.
Green was given the nod at three ahead of Ollie Pope with Harry Brook and Ben Stokes favoured over Travis Head and Beau Webster in the middle order and new keeper Jamie Smith getting the gloves ahead of Alex Carey even though the Aussie veteran is widely considered the best in the business and has excelled for a much longer period of time.
Residual anger from his stumping of Jonny Bairstow in the 2023 series is apparently still lingering.
When it came to the bowling department, the BBC voters begrudgingly rated Starc, Cummins and Lyon as three of the four bowlers who would form a combined attack but could not find room for Josh Hazlewood over Jofra Archer despite the NSW seamer’s superior record compared with the inury-prone England quick’s flashy brilliance.
The Test Match Special commentary trio of Phil Tufnell, Michael Vaughan and lone Aussie Glenn McGrath picked their combined XIs.
They all went for Duckett and Crawley as their openers with McGrath saying he would take Green over Pope.
“The issue for Cam Green at the moment, I don’t think he’s 100%. I’m not sure he’s going to start that first Test match.
So, and if they don’t, I think Marnus Labuschagne will come in. He’s in fine form, but out of the options we have, I’ve gone for Cam Green over Ollie Pope,” McGrath said.
Tufnell took Pope while Vaughan took Green.
Vaughan went Smith over Root due to the former England captain’s modest record in Australia while Tufnell again voted along national lines.
Brook vs Head was another tough selection: McGrath went with the Aussie even though he conceded the England vice-captain is “such a special player, special talent”.
Vaughan and Tufnell both took Brook whle all three thought Stokes, Cummins, Starc, Lyon and Archer were the superior options.
The English duo used their advantage to vote for Smith over Carey for the keeper’s spot.
“You have to say that Australian quicks are probably just a little bit more experienced, obviously in Australian conditions,” Vaughan said.
Nathan Lyon. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)
“The glaring obvious one for me is that Nathan Lyon is world-class and England don’t have a world-class spinner.
“So if the pitches just offer a little bit of grab, I go back to the last Ashes series in ’23 where Nathan went off at Lord’s in that second Test match, but in the first Test at Edgbaston in the second innings when England were dominating, England gifted him a fifer and that was really where Australia won the game in England’s batting in the second innings.
“If England think they can just play all the trick shots and dance down and whack Nathan Lyon – with the bigger boundaries and he will play the in-out fields, you could see that Nathan Lyon will have a really good time of it.
“So it’s really, really important for England that they play Nathan Lyon, not just in the Bazball way, they’ve just got to milk him, keep him out there, don’t gift him any wickets because if he starts to get on a roll, he’ll have a tremendous series.”
Tufnell said the spotlight was on the England attack.
“I think a lot of it is going to just come down to this England bowling attack. If they can just get momentum, if they can get on a roll with the pace of Archer and Wood, if they can start rustling a few feathers, it’s going to be interesting to see how they sort of chop and change because they can’t all play for the five Test matches.”
McGrath said Starc would bring the X-factor to the Aussie pace battery even if Cummins is out injured.
“When he’s on song, he can just destroy teams. He can blast teams out. That new ball swing, he bowls such aggressive lines and lengths,” he said.
“He’s got that much ability and skill. I always put Wasim Akram as the most skilful bowler I’ve ever seen. And Stark is right up there beside him and in these conditions and if he is bowling well, he can destroy teams.”