Six left-handed openers

To win the Ashes you almost certainly need a strong opening pair. Most of the Ashes-winning pairings that comes to mind have been either two right-handers or a right and a left. Hobbs and Sutcliffe, Woodfull and Ponsford, Gooch and Robinson were all right-handers. Wessels and Dyson, Broad and Athey, Taylor and Slater were all right-and-left.

Since the final Ashes Test of 2001, Australia’s first-choice opening pair have been two left-handers, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. They have never been in danger of being mistaken for two peas in a pod. Hayden is huge and takes a big stride forward, Langer is little and mainly moves sideways, so bowlers have to change their length every time the two of them take a single, just as they would have to change their line for a right-and-left combination.

In 2004, England joined Australia in lefty heaven, when Andrew Strauss became an instant automatic choice to open with Marcus Trescothick. They too play differently, though in a less marked way. Trescothick is a stand-and-deliver thumper, Strauss a nudger, cutter and puller. So in the 2005 Ashes, both openers on both sides were left-handers. Almost as unusually, the English pair did better, making 824 runs between them at 41, to Hayden and Langer’s 712 at 39 - and doing a lot more in the decisive matches.

Now both teams have gone further still. Australia have brought in Mike Hussey, who has spent most of his career as an opener for Western Australia, at number five. He has done so well that WA may be wondering why they ever asked him to open. The nerveless adaptability that Hussey had shown in one-day internationals has translated seamlessly to Test cricket. He can defend, attack, rebuild or shepherd the tail. England’s main hope with him has to be that sophomore syndrome sets in, as it did with Strauss during the first half of the 2005 Ashes.

England’s own top order now consists of three left-handed openers. Alastair Cook has come in at number three to replace Michael Vaughan, and, in all but place, he is the classic left-handed opener – watchful, well-organised, sometimes crabby, powerful square of the wicket, strong against pace, not so hot against spin. His strike rate is a bit old-school (44), but he makes up for it with an outstanding average (54).

Having three openers worked for Australia under Allan Border in the 1980s, when they split up the successful pairing of Geoff Marsh and David Boon to squeeze Mark Taylor in. And it worked for England under Ray Illingworth in 1970-71, when John Edrich was at number three behind Geoff Boycott and Brian Luckhurst. It’s a form of insurance, which England need at the moment, with Trescothick convalescing at home with his stress-related illness.

David Graveney said this week that he had spoken to Trescothick on the phone and he “sounded upbeat”, which is good, but a month ago Graveney was trying to allay doubts about Trescothick having a deadline for his recovery by saying he lived near him and would be able to meet up. That seems not to have happened. The feeling persists that the England management, for understandable reasons, don’t know quite what they are dealing with here.