Ryan ten Doeschate / Ryan ten doeschate / 26 August 2009 / Leave a comment

The Essex all-rounder on team-mate Ravi Bopara, why England need to kick on in the Test arena and the upcoming ODI Series.

"The Aussies have been boosted by the arrival of their one-day 'specialists', who include Nathan Bracken and James Hopes. Bracken is one of the best one-day bowlers around and, along with Mitchell Johnson, will lead Australia's bowling attack. Mike Hussey's classy ton in tough conditions at the Oval indicates that he's found some form and he is the only batsman on either team to feature in the ODI batting top 10."

England did fantastically well to regroup after Headingley and the Series decider at the Oval turned out to be a fitting swansong to another memorable Ashes summer.
From the start, there was not much to separate the two teams but outstanding individual performances by Stuart Broad, Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann helped give England the edge. Ricky Ponting emerged with a lot of credit after his post-match interview. The reception he received, along with the general atmosphere at the Oval, symbolises everything that is so good about The Ashes.

Essex were playing against Surrey while the Test was going on and were continually being updated on the scores from the Oval. The irony of Rav [Bopara] being in the middle while Trotty's scores were being announced was not lost on me. It must have been at the front of Rav's mind too. But, to his credit, he played with composure in getting to 200 and was just thrilled that his teammates managed to reclaim the Ashes.
Getting over disappointment and bouncing back is a big part of the make-up of top performers and Rav has shown a near perfect response to his omission. We were chatting over dinner on the second night (when he was 83 not out) and he was insistent that he would get a proper score.

Team director Andy Flower has been quick to warn against complacency and England must ensure that they now progress as a team. The Ashes victory is overwhelming and a massive achievement but really good teams maintain a hunger for success and show consistency over long periods of time, not just over a Series. The 2005 Ashes victory will be remembered as one of the biggest wins in English cricketing history but the performances that followed that Series failed to elevate that team to much more than 'the team that won the Ashes'.
However, England can immediately set off in search of consistency by impressing in the format that has most troubled them - one-day cricket.

Australia will be relentless in their determination to overturn the Ashes loss by ending the tour with the limited-overs spoils. England have struggled to dominate in one-day cricket and, besides the odd good series win, they haven't managed to be a major threat on the world stage. By their own high standards, Australia have also underachieved.
Teams like South Africa, India and Sri Lanka appear to be taking the reigns in limited-overs cricket and with more and more emphasis being placed on the shorter format of the game it is imperative that England and Australia keep up.

Andy Flower has some good young talent at his disposal and it's crucial that England find a way of being consistently competitive in short-form cricket. It is a pity that they set off on this quest without Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff but it does provide the perfect chance for other players to shine. Luke Wright and our own Ravi Bopara are explosive top-order players. Along with the stability that Strauss provides, they will be responsible for getting England up and running. In James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom, England have a superb bowling unit with good options at the beginning and end of an innings.

The Aussies have been boosted by the arrival of their one-day 'specialists', who include Nathan Bracken and James Hopes. Bracken is one of the best one-day bowlers around and, along with Mitchell Johnson, will lead Australia's bowling attack. Mike Hussey's classy ton in tough conditions at the Oval indicates that he's found some form and he is the only batsman on either team to feature in the ODI batting top 10. Don't be surprised if he bounces back from a relatively poor Ashes to be Australia's top runscorer.

I'm hoping to be fit for our Championship match against Leicester starting on Wednesday. I took a knock on the hand while batting on Friday and subsequently missed our one-day match on Sunday. We've put a string of good performances together and have given ourselves a good chance for promotion in the four-day format. I did mention the importance of going on a 'run' of good results in a drawn out season and we seem to have hit our straps at a good time.

The run-in is crucial and we'll be looking for two wins and two good draws from the last four matches. Pakistani spinner Danish Kaneria has been brilliant since returning from Sri Lanka and having Rav back last week was also a big factor in grinding out the win. Cooky replaces Rav for the current match but it will need a huge team effort, centred around our big players, to achieve promotion. We are all prepared for a tough four weeks.

Andrew Strauss's leadership was brilliant during the Ashes and it has attracted praise from inside and outside the dressing room. He will be desperate to extend England's dominance over Australia and send them home empty handed. England are nicely poised to explode into a special team and achieve the domination of world cricket that they and the English cricketing public crave.