In the end, it was a strange way to end a strange white-ball tour. Steve Smith captaining a one-day match in Bristol in place of Mitchell Marsh, who was captaining in place of Pat Cummins, but whose previous absence in a T20 had been filled by Travis Head. Matt Short replacing Marsh as opener, having been replaced by Marsh a match earlier, after replacing Marsh for two games after Marsh had replaced Short from the T20s. Cooper Connolly getting his second game in Australian colours but still not getting a bat.
It was a strange game watching Australia race the clock and the autumn clouds, trying to face 20 overs of the chase before imminent rain ended the day, needing to stay ahead of the required tally to be awarded a score-projection win and take the series 3-2 should the clouds burst. Rain came four balls after the required overs were reached. A flurry of striking from Short, Smith and Josh Inglis had lifted them to 165-2, enough for the mathematicians to deduce that 144 from 30 overs was sufficiently within Australiaâs grasp to deserve the assumption of reaching Englandâs 309. That omits the possibility of a change in trajectory like the one that Englandâs own innings suffered, but itâs the cost of doing statistical business.
Rain has been so much of the discussion. The online complaints department has spent weeks full of indignation that cricket was being played in September, coming from people who seem to have forgotten all of the other years of cricket played in September, from the first Test on English soil in 1880 to the one-day series against Ireland in 2023. Yet in a reminder that the digital does not reflect the world extant, every match this year was sold out, and seven of eight had a result. The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness may once have bewildered Monty Panesar, and may have shown rather more teeth than the poem suggests, but it did not deter a single soulâs worth of empty seats.
The forgetfulness of cricket past extended to the current season, with various people determined to blame The Hundred, one of Englandâs domestic competitions, for displacing the Australian series, while omitting the unusual factor that the senior England team spent the entirety of June in the Caribbean playing a T20 World Cup. June is generally a handy month for hosting international cricket. And yes, in England, it can rain in June too. And July, and August. During this yearâs damp season it did all three.
But autumn was the season for narratives that were as substantial as September mist. Local press framed the ODI contest as their countryâs young side against the grizzled champions, but World Cup winners Josh Hazlewood, Head, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Inglis all missed games. Starc got tonked and Maxwell scored scant runs. Only Smith and Marnus Labuschagne played all five, for two half centuries between them.
The inexperienced Short was relied on for fast starts. Discarded keeper Alex Carey returned due to injury to control the middle order. The fast bowling combination for the first ODI was Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, and Ben Dwarshuis, who got injured after four overs. Australia won anyway. If those names do not ring bronze strikes from the bell of awe, there is a reason why. Two of Australiaâs three wins came from dousing a fire-snorting England innings with the scant trickle of part-time spin.
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But there were things to learn throughout, for good and ill. Western Australian all-rounder Hardie, with a handful of matches to his name, made vital runs with some uncomplicated hitting, and showed moments of class with the ball. He is one for the future, and perhaps for the present. Abbott is too easily targeted. Starc has ground to cover to regain his best. Inglis has a knack for runs but Carey has lost no class with the bat. Zampa has remarkable powers of resilience. Head is operating on a plane of his own. Short has earned a chance at the top, but we know nothing more about whether Jake Fraser-McGurk can cut it.
That is the main disappointment about Australiaâs tour: not finding out more about newer players. Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis and Riley Meredith may each have played some part without injury. Fraser-McGurk and Connolly are prodigies but sat on the bus unused. Results aside, it would have been worth seeing what they could do. If these games are about entertainment, nothing entertains like the new. But at least, before football submerges England as the seasons deepen toward winter, and the Australians take flight toward our own southern summer, an autumn provided something for the crowds that wanted it.
