2009 Ashes / Andrew Hughes / 30 June 2009 / Leave a comment

Last time round Kevin Pietersen was the hero and Michael Clarke the zero. Andrew Hughes looks at what has happened since and what we can expect from them this summer

By the end of the 2005 Ashes, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that there had only been one outrageously gifted and flamboyant young batsman on show that summer. With his pantomime haircut, rubber-wrists and thoroughly un-English swagger, Kevin Pietersen was the icing on the England cake, his astonishing innings at the Oval the crowning glory of their summer.

Yet before the series began, it was blonde Aussie wunderkind Michael Clarke who was named most likely to succeed in most of the Ashes previews. A string of dazzling one day innings had taken him into the Test team and earned him the Allan Border medal. But though his raw talent was apparent from the First Test at Lord's, his cavalier attitude and brittle technique repeatedly brought about his downfall.

Four years on and both men are preparing to face one another again. They have much in common. Their batting averages are in the same high-forties territory where you find the names of those verging on greatness. Both have gone from being talented novices to seasoned veterans and both are essential to their nations' Ashes hopes. However, they have trodden very different paths in the intervening years.

In a batting line-up devoid of stars, it was inevitable that Pietersen would be propelled to the fore. Injury and trauma removed the other two class acts in Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan and pretty much since that heady day at the Oval, Pietersen has been regarded as England's only world class batsman. But the pressure to maintain his standards, burn-out, injury and the emotional scars of his failed spell as England captain had, by this spring, taken their toll on this confident but not insensitive player.

After his Ashes failure, Clarke soon lost his Test place and disillusionment could have set in at that point. But right from the start, the unforgiving culture of Australian cricket teaches youngsters that you have to work hard to earn a second chance. Clarke did just that, becoming more patient, more circumspect about when to unleash those wristy and audacious offside shots. The fashionable blonde locks were shorn off and it was an altogether more substantial young man who regained his Test place. He has repaid the selectors' faith by averaging 57.80 in his last 25 Tests, becoming the mainstay of an evolving batting line-up.

Both men will have leadership roles this summer. Vice-captain Clarke was long ago identified as a future Australian leader and his capable performance as stand-in skipper for the one day series with Bangladesh impressed many. But Pietersen will also have much to offer England. It is to his credit and to England's great fortune that his experiences as captain have not soured him. These days he is more involved than ever in working for the good of the team, offering advice to the likes of Ravi Bopara and even seeking intelligence on the Australians from his Bangalore Royal Challengers team-mates Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher.

Punters will be most interested in how the two players are likely to fare at the crease. Pietersen's preparation has been less than ideal and at the time of writing, though his recovery from his Achilles injury is going well, there has to be a slight doubt hanging over his ability to see out a frenetic Ashes series in which the matches come thick and fast. Given that injury doubt, it is a little surprising to see him quite so short in the top England series batsman market, at [3.6]

Perhaps just as surprising are the current odds on offer about Clarke in the top Australian series batting market. Ed Hawkins' most recent article explains in depth where the value is to be found here and it is hard to disagree that odds of [5.6] about the Aussie vice captain are on the generous side, given the comparatively indifferent form of the other senior batsmen. Those odds will look even more generous if England go with a two spinner strategy. Clarke is one of the best players of spin around and will be more than happy to see both Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar line up at Cardiff.

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