Steven Smith says Australia’s depth has been underlined by a 4-1 Ashes result after a final Test in Sydney that, awkwardly, turned out to help the spinners more than he had imagined.
“I think it just shows our depth,” he noted, pointing to a series win earned while Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon played barely a handful of overs between them.
Day five at the SCG told its own story. Smith himself was bowled by a sharp off-break from Will Jacks that ripped through middle and leg; moments later Usman Khawaja edged the same bowler just wide of slip. Twenty-four hours earlier Beau Webster – who freely admits he hardly practises his off-spin these days – had jagged one back to trap Harry Brook lbw and swing the match Australia’s way.
Yet Australia had left their only specialist spinner, Todd Murphy, on the bench. At the toss Smith hinted that surfaces this summer had forced the selectors “into a corner”, favouring seam and lengthening the batting.
A five-wicket victory has rendered the debate largely academic, but Smith did concede the decision would have looked very different if the result had gone the other way.
“It is now,” he said when asked if the call was justified. “We’re standing here winning, right? Had we not, there’s maybe a bit to answer for there, potentially. You’ve got to weigh up how you think the game’s going to pan out. We thought the cracks were going to open up quicker than they did and the rough wasn’t going to be as prevalent as it was.”
He argued that an elongated batting order was decisive. “Our batting was obviously really deep with [Mitchell Starc] coming in at No. 10. I think that in this game, that length of the batting order with Beau coming in at nine after a night-watchman and getting 70, getting us to that total in the first innings was crucial. There’s different points in the game you can look at.”
On the surface itself he was glowing. “In terms of the wicket, I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen in my 15 years playing here. I think it offered a bit for everyone. The new ball worked a bit. If you batted well and applied yourself, you could score runs. Then the rough came into play at the backend and there were some cracks there as well.”
Selector George Bailey echoed that view privately afterwards, stressing that Australia had gambled on an extra batter rather than a specialist tweaker, not that such labels seem to bother Webster. “I don’t even bowl that much in the nets any more,” the Tasmanian shrugged. “I just try to land it somewhere near and hope it does something.”
England, meanwhile, stuck with four seamers and Jacks’ occasional off-spin, despite Shoaib Bashir travelling as cover. Skipper Ben Stokes admitted afterwards they had considered the Somerset youngster but felt the surface would stay true for longer. “We got that wrong, clearly,” one member of the touring management said off the record, though there was little appetite for dwelling on the issue.
Australia’s ability to adapt felt like the broader theme of the summer. Cummins managed only the opener before a quad strain ruled him out; Lyon’s hamstring flared in Adelaide; Hazlewood never quite cleared the final hurdles after a side strain. Michael Neser filled the gaps, featuring in three Tests and reviving memories of Rodney Hogg with the ball and, surprisingly, Alex Carey with the gloves – Carey standing up to the stumps for long spells to keep England’s top order pinned.
There was also the Khawaja subplot, the opener’s back giving way in Perth. That might have derailed earlier Australian sides; this one simply shuffled the order, inserted Matt Renshaw, and moved on.
The series result will not mask every concern – Marnus Labuschagne finished with only one fifty, Cameron Green’s bowling workload stayed light – but winning while rotating half the attack is no small achievement. Former captain Ricky Ponting described it as “a real flex of resources”, though added that Australia would still prefer Lyon fit and firing for next winter’s trip to the sub-continent.
As for Smith, he was leaving the SCG satisfied, if slightly relieved. The debate over spin versus balance is unlikely to disappear, yet for now the scoreboard reads 4-1 and Australia still hold the urn.
And that, to borrow his own words, is hard to argue with when “we’re standing here winning, right?”.
