‘Ronball’ is flourishing down under but will it come unstuck in Ashes?

On the second day of that third Test, Steve Smith scored his 30th Test century, taking him past Sir Donald Bradman’s tally, Usman Khawaja passed his previous highest Test score of 174 — finishing unbeaten on 195 — Marnus Labuschagne made “only” 79 and Travis Head “only” 70.

Given that Labuschagne averages 101.83 in Australia’s five Tests during their home summer, and Head’s average is 87.50 in the same period, you can label such scores as relative failures without fear of opprobrium. The Australian standards are that high.

The previous Test at Melbourne to end a barren spell, a match in which the wicketkeeper Alex Carey also made a century, one of the major reasons why Australia have lost only one of their past 14 Tests is apparent. Their No 1 ranking in the world is fully deserved, as is the top batting spot for Labuschagne, with Smith second and Head fourth.

Runs on the board are key, and often Australia have been making them at a decent lick, parading their own “Ronball” (using coach Andrew McDonald’s nickname) in response to England’s “Bazball” under Brendon McCullum.

The Australians were never going to be particularly enamoured of this new brand of cricket, especially as it was only a year ago that they were pummelling England down under, winning the series 4-0, with their stance on it best encapsulated by the Smith’s words last July.

“I’ve watched a little bit of it, it’s been entertaining, they’re coming out playing their shots,” he said. “If you’re on a wicket that’s got some grass and Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are rolling in at you, is it going to be the same? We’ll see what happens.”

Indeed, we will, because there have been doom-mongers predicting the death of Bazball with every series, but that argument can be flipped back at the Australians too.

Let’s see how these much-vaunted batsmen do in England, shall we? Some of their records in this country are moderate. Warner averages 26.04 in his 13 Tests here, but, if you narrow that down further to the most recent series here, in 2019, he averaged just 9.50 then, with Stuart Broad not so much having his number as his whole personal history, sandpaper and all.

Broad also dismissed Head three times in four Tests in 2019, with the left-hander making only one fifty before being dropped for the final Test. In six first-class matches for Sussex in 2021 Head averaged only 18.30, and seven appearances for Worcestershire and Yorkshire have not been that much more fruitful.

The 29-year-old has, though, made some technical changes since 2019, most notably opening his shoulders and feet a little in his stance (he had become too side-on, meaning that his head was falling to the off side too easily) so that his backlift is also not going behind his body. He is in fine form, as England discovered, even if it was only in the third meaningless one-day international in Melbourne in November, when Head made 152.

Khawaja, another left-hander, is also in regal form. He is a player reborn after being recalled to the side for the fourth Ashes Test last year, making twin centuries in Sydney, and not having glanced back since.

He was moved up to open for the final Ashes Test in Hobart and has remained there, with conspicuous success, making centuries against Pakistan in Lahore and Karachi, as well as his huge effort in this Test. But in his six Ashes Tests in England, all batting at No 3, the 36-year-old averages only 19.66.

Smith’s Ashes record here, however, is outstanding. In his 16 Tests he averages 59.55, with six centuries. With his revamped, much less hyperactive (and more side-on) technique, he remains, in my opinion, the greatest challenge for England’s bowlers this summer.

Although Labuschagne will have his say on that too. He averaged 50.42 in four Tests in 2019 and will warm up for the Ashes, as he did then, with a stint at Glamorgan. Their coach, Matthew Maynard, helped him to adapt his method to English (and Welsh) pitches by staying more side-on and not using his back (right) hip too much.

But what will the pitches bring? So far Bazball has been strutted on mainly flat surfaces, but many of Australia’s biggest calamities in not winning a series here since 2001 — think of their 60 all out at Trent Bridge in 2015 — have come when the ball has darted about on typically English pitches. What will Baz and Ben (Stokes) want?

The drawn series (2-2) in 2019 did not begin until August 1 because of the World Cup. This year’s series will be done by July 31 because of the Hundred. Will that matter in relation to those pitches? Whatever the state of the pitches and the elements, however, the level of expected excitement and entertainment surely promises to make this one of the great Ashes series.

-The Times