England are in Barbados and got stuck into their first action of 2019 today. It is a truly unbelievable year to be an England cricketer.
There have been home World Cups before and home Ashes, but you have to go back to the 1970s for the two to have collided. And, let’s face it, England have never been favourites for both at the same time.
The World Cup is a bit more of a lottery, but in English conditions and given the group of players they have, they’ll never have a better opportunity. And they really should win the Ashes.
For the white-ball specialists, everything is about the World Cup every four years. For the Test players, the Ashes is the pinnacle. How many times across sport, let alone just in cricket, have teams had the opportunity to win the best their game has to offer twice in a couple of months?
It couldn’t be coming along at a better time. England have spent four years preparing very well for the World Cup. In Tests, things are coming together well. If it was a year or two later on, they might not have Jimmy Anderson in the Test side. He’s still one of the best in the world. They have a young core, a fine pair of captains.
They have to start their year well in the Caribbean, where the Test side will need to adapt what they did in Sri Lanka.
That was an amazing win, their first overseas for nearly three years, but this will be different.
The Caribbean is a completely different venue to the one I grew up watching. Then, it was all about chin music. Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh; Mike Atherton bobbing and weaving. On my most recent trips to the Caribbean with Sky and Kent, the wickets have been slow and spin plays a far bigger part.
It won’t spin like Sri Lanka, but you probably still want two spinners. For me, that means an extra seamer comes in for Jack Leach. I’d go for Moeen Ali, who is the No1 spinner, and Adil Rashid. The seamers will be steady, so I’m after a bit of mystery and Rashid brings that.
The batting is taking shape, too. The openers, Rory Burns and Keaton Jennings, have lots to prove, especially as I think Jason Roy could be a Test opener before the year is out, but are followed by the core of the side. Jos Buttler is no longer a luxury player, while Ben Stokes is my tip to be England’s big star this year. This will be his redemption year. The only thing you ever hear from the coaches about Stokes is that he’s working too hard and needs to rein it in. That effort will pay off. Working too hard is not something that resonates from my playing days, mind.
I’ve thought for a while, probably much to Jonny Bairstow’s disgust, that he should just be concentrating on being a brilliant batsman in the top order. Since Jonathan Trott’s retirement, with the exception of Joe Root, Bairstow is the best player England have tried at No3. There’s a lot of talk about upsetting Jonny, and how taking the gloves off him would be damaging.
But he proved people wrong and with that hundred in Colombo he proved himself wrong. He can be a superb No3 and can dominate in the top order like he has in ODIs. Get him settled there, and England have a batting line-up that could be together for years to come.
It will be an own goal if Giles bans football warm-ups
Ashley Giles has started as England’s director of cricket and I think he’s perfectly suited to the role.
He was someone who constantly had to prove people wrong about his game — he wasn’t blessed with doosras, mystery spin or big turn. Giles (right) came in for a lot of criticism and as a player you don’t miss any of that, someone lets you know. He’s made of strong stuff and struck me as someone who had an empathy for players who might be struggling.
He has spoken about banning football as a warm-up but I think he makes that move at his peril. I remember a fitness trainer coming into Kent and saying we won’t play football and we said, “Look, mate, football will last a lot longer around here than you”.
A cricket warm-up is redundant for 90 per cent of people. You warm up at 9.30-10am, most blokes will end up having a cup of tea between warming up and taking part in the game.
In a five-day game you’re mentally drained, the intensity of it all is so much, especially in the middle of a series, and it’s daunting.
In a football warm-up, for that 15 minutes, you throw to one side all your worries about snicking off, getting panned around the park or fielding all day. Physiologically there are better ways to warm up, but there’s no doubt football gets people going, the blood pumping.
For me, and most players, the benefits outweigh the negatives.