In his latest Ashes column, Wisden Cricket Monthly editor in chief Phil Walker unpicks England's selection of Will Jacks, for the crucial day-night Test in Brisbane.
So, it’s Jacks. Will Jacks. The outlying name in the squad, no Test match since two random hits in Pakistan three years ago but summoned here for the biggest match of the Stokesian era, chunked into the No.8 slot with a clear and daunting brief. How the selection will be received is likely to hinge on one's own deepeningly complex relationship with the team itself.
Many will inevitably dismiss it as another wild gamble and insult to the form. It will be pointed out that England spent two years honing the specialist skills of Shoaib Bashir into an Ashes-ready option only to look past him for a white-ball-mostly kind of cricketer, rich in bags and IPL-shimmer yet boasting the grand sum of five red-ball games in two seasons. They will add, with good reason, that at no stage across these seasons did he appear remotely close to adding to his couple of Test caps, and nor was anyone especially minded to shift his course.
For two years, every decision, every hunch and reflex, has been trending towards this series. And yet after two days’ cricket, here’s our part-timer tightening his digits around a bag of squishy pink cricket balls, digging deep into the muscle memory banks to recall what it once felt like to be a Test match finger spinner. (As it happens, Jacks will have decent memories of that Pakistan tour, where he picked up a six-bag on debut, got through 40 overs in the first innings at Rawalpindi, and was rewarded for his efforts with a hit at No.3 in the next game.)
Reasons, then. He is unlikely to be overawed. Opening the batting with Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians tends to build a certain invulnerability to pressure and spectacle. He is well respected by top brass. Since taking the white-ball gig, Brendon McCullum has paid more attention to him, and he likes what he sees. Jacks' new role in the finisher slot at No.7 in the ODI team suggests they see him as a cricketer with the requisite nous and clearheadedness to ride out the storms when a game is on the line. At least, while nothing can prepare him for the onslaughts to come, he will not feel isolated stepping into the Brisbane kiln.
The role is clearly defined: after 30 overs the pink ball goes soft and spongy, and there will be times when the quicks get knackered and fed up with it. Conditions will be hot and muggy, so the four-man pace attack will need to rest. Jacks will need to absorb as many Australian punches as he can. He has decent experience as a white-ball containing bowler, with a good T20 career economy rate; his role here may not be that dissimilar. The wickets, so the thinking goes, can be collected elsewhere; Jacks’ job with the ball will be to churn through the overs and try to avoid getting marmalised. The widespread assumption that this game won't run into a fifth day further mitigates against the need for a frontline spinner.
In his favour, perhaps, will be Australia’s preponderance of left-handers, and, against the right-handers, Mitchell Starc’s footmarks could come into play. Other kernels, albeit minuscule: Nathan Lyon has a very good record with the pink ball in home Tests, averaging 25 for his 43 wickets. We’ll leave that comparison there.
For all that the Gabba essentially demands ultra violence, has it baked into the soil, the lack of a spinner was deemed a risk too far for England. The kicker is that after the implosion at Perth, every call carries jeopardy. The temptation to replace Mark Wood with Josh Tongue – raw and erratic but a born wicket-taker – would, and should, have been strong.
The modern game skews against the old truths, and the latest to go is the one about doing what the other team would least like you to. Still, as Steve Smith prepares to bat with black strips stuck to his cheekbones, Chanderpaul-style, in order to pick up the devilish pink orb a little more clearly, ask yourself this: which of Josh Tongue or Will Jacks would he most like to face? And what about Marnus Labuschagne, struggling time after time against the seaming ball at home, with a high of 72 since the start of Australia's 2023 summer? Or Jake Weatherald, nervily finding his way as a Test player? (Don't waste your breath on Travis. He couldn’t give a toss who he faces.)
Ultimately, Jacks' bat has swung it. England, despite what they say, were spooked by what happened at Perth. The lower-order collapse in the first innings got a bit buried in all the excitement of that chaotic first day, but losing five for 12 in a whirlwind of cross-batted hoicks, isolating Jamie Smith when calmness and a little stickability was needed, has prompted them to further bolster their lower order. There is logic here: with Brydon Carse at No.10, and Jofra Archer – no mug with the bat, albeit a perpetual underperformer – at No.11, England boast a dangerous tail. In what most are expecting to be a low scoring game, flung open to the elements, it is an understandable impulse to want to pack the batting.
One hopes that Jacks treats his role not as merely another dasher, good for a few before picking out the man in the deep, but as a frontline batter in the making. Those who have charted his career for Surrey have observed a technically sound middle-order player who in another era would have pushed his red-ball average up from 35 to somewhere around 40. No doubt, he can bat. His presence offers the impression, however chimeric such things are with this team, of sturdiness.
Cautionary voices will argue that England have a long and illustrious history of sacrificing a wicket-taking threat for lower-order ballast, and it blowing up in their faces. But the sense remains that this is as close to pragmatism as this set-up gets. Every move is a gamble. Every call a risk. It’s now or never. Win or bust. No room left for manoeuvre.
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