Gritty England have proved that they are the new Australia

The first day of the ongoing Test at Lord’s provided another example of England’s resolve.

By David Green

As England fans we remember too well at the Reverse Sweep how often the dominant Australian side would snatch Test match victory from the jaws of defeat.

We lost count of the number of times when they had slipped to three or four down for not very many and Steve Waugh or Adam Gilchrist would put their side back into the ascendency by grinding or blasting a hundred respectively. Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Co. would then do the rest.

Happily, England have now developed similar good habits.

At first under the Andy Flower-Andrew Strauss axis, England learned how to save Test matches from seemingly impossible situations. The trio of glorious nine-wicket down draws at Cardiff 2009, Centurion 2009 and Newlands 2010 provide ample enough evidence of that.

Now, when England have to save a Test, they do it with a bit more panache. And you don’t do that more emphatically than England did at Brisbane last November – 517 for one, indeed.

England have now moved to the next level. At Trent Bridge and Lord’s last summer, England were in real trouble against Pakistan’s excellent bowling attack. But they recovered in style. At Trent Bridge, it was Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood in the first innings and Matt Prior in the second. Whilst at Lord’s, it was that massive stand between Trott and Broad that took the Test and a drawn series away from Pakistan.

The first day of the ongoing Test at Lord’s provided another example of England’s resolve. First Alastair Cook and Ian Bell played the Waugh part to repair from a precarious 22 for three, before Morgan and Prior assumed the Gilchrist role and blasted England into the ascendency by the close of play. England’s bowlers will probably do the rest over the coming days.

A sign of an excellent cricket side is the ability to turn games around in a blink of an eye. England can do that now. As can India – the final Test of the tour to Sri Lanka last summer being just one example. So the forthcoming Test series between the two teams promises to be a clash of the titans.

(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also @TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfil his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)