Come on England

Buoyed by a sharp upswing in fortunes, we have waited all summer long for the Ashes collision against the world's greatest cricket side Australia. Now after just one Test, admittedly a stark humbling at Lord's, the mood has dipped into despondency. The purveyors of doom and gloom could not have had a better start to their tiresome brow-furrowing.

But wasn't the First Test result as predictable as cycling supernova Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France or Great Britain's swimmers foundering at the World Championships? Even though the England attack, led by the north's potentate of pace Steve Harmison, had such a glorious wicket-amassing start, the Aussies always win at Lord's.

And hadn't the visit of the globe's most successful cricket team been facilitated so kindly as to ensure they were in perfect ticking order for the first Test? I mean, fancy organising all those one-day games so they could run into form straight for the Ashes' start. The English Cricket Board may as well have just flooded the Aussie dressing-room with crates of the amber nectar, sachets of sun-block and enough hair highlights to sate a Sydney suburb of salons.

Edgbaston, a far less colonial-friendly setting, is the venue for the resumption of those ancient hostilities in two days' time. So the incentive is clear. Bash the Aussies, level the score and set up the series and the rest of the summer for a cricket clash we can all revel in, because you can bet that if Ricky Ponting's world champions prevail over five days in Birmingham, there's no coming back then.

Those Down Under devils just do not yield a 2-0 lead. That would be more stupendous than a labouring Premiership football outfit team bouncing back from a 3-0 half-time deficit to beat a crack Italian side to lift the European Cup. Ha-ha.

England, however, need not indulge in awaiting sporting fantasy. They can create their own. The Aussies may play like deities, but they are not super-human.

Yes they do have the two finest practitioners of their respective bowling arts in the metronomic Glenn McGrath and the mesmeric Shane Warne. What zany folly it was to suggest writing off either, even if both are nearing the twilight of their illustrious innings at the business end of the Australian attack. Strewth - they boast between them more than 1,000 Test victims, McGrath lolloping past the 500 milestone in his annihilation of England on that fateful first day at Lord's last month.

In both our replies England sagged like so much peach melba left out in the midday Melbourne sun. Save for Kevin Pietersen's controlled but still cavalier approach - two 50-plus scores on his Test debut - England's renaissance was suddenly absent rather than nascent.

At least the selectors, for once, did not panic and initiate any wholesale changes for this Thursday's return to arms - although last night they added Paul Collingwood to the squad. They have given those who flopped at HQ a second chance. Those most culpable need to grab it with both arms, particularly Messrs Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff (pictured right), Geraint Jones and, if he plays, Ashley Giles.

Two of that quartet, skipper Vaughan and all-rounder Flintoff, and Harmison too, could contemplate forcing their way into the current Australia side. So now is the time for them to deliver. Edgbaston, nay England, awaits.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, August 02, 2005