Shanghai: Former Australia cricket captain Steve Waugh says England may be at rock bottom, but believes they have the potential to upset Australia in this summer’s Ashes.
Waugh launched a scathing attack on Peter Moores’ side, deriding their woeful World Cup earlier this year, in which they failed to make the knockout stages and suffered an embarrassing defeat to Bangladesh.
“They were a non-entity in that World Cup for whatever reason,” he said. “Someone’s got to work out why that happened to start with and why there wasn’t more fighting spirit. You don’t mind your side losing but it’s how they lose, and there wasn’t much there for a fan of English cricket to hold on to and take as positives.”
Could things get any worse for England?
Waugh, who captained Australia between 1999 until his retirement in 2004, told media in Shanghai: “Not really. But right now they’re playing in the West Indies, so if they can take some positives out of that series.
“You can’t focus too much on what’s happened. That’s obviously not good but it is in the past and you’ve got to look forward to what you can do now.
“Hopefully, players can have a good couple of Test matches there and get some confidence. It can turn around pretty quickly, surprisingly, like Australia turned things around reasonably quickly.
“So I wouldn’t put it beyond England to come back and be competitive in this Ashes series, but they need some spark, they need someone to lead the way.”
Prior to Australia’s visit in July, England face World Cup runners-up New Zealand and Waugh says that Moores’ beleaguered side should look to the Kiwis for encouragement.
“I think their blueprint is New Zealand cricket over the past couple of years,” he said. “New Zealand cricket seemed to be in real strife about two or three years ago and people were saying ‘they’re not competitive in Test cricket’.
“You’ve seen what they’ve done in the last two years with a positive attitude. There have been some good things happening behind the scenes there. They’ve found a really good, positive leader [in Brendon McCullum], who has encouraged players to play their natural way and not be scared of failure. So I think there has been good leadership, both on and off the field.”
He added: “But you want some good, solid cricket leading up to an Ashes series. And I think that’s good preparation [the series against New Zealand].
“England, they haven’t lost their potential or skill overnight. They’ve lost their confidence right now and there are too many side issues affecting the team.”
Waugh remains convinced that mighty Australia will retain the Ashes, however, having routed England 5-0 Down Under in the previous series in 2013/14.
He said: “It’s pretty obvious our team is in pretty good shape and, importantly, in Test cricket, we’ve got bowlers who can take 20 wickets. We’ve got, I think, the best young group of quicks we may have ever had in Australian cricket and, if they all get fit and you put guys like Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle around those young quicks, then we’re going to take 20 wickets.
“We’ve got Fawad Ahmad, who I think is an exceptional talent as a leg-spinner, who’s going to surprise a lot of people on this English tour, who’s a world-class bowler. I think, in my mind, he can be.
“When you take 20 wickets, you’re in a good position. So I think we’re firm favourites.”
Does he predict another whitewash, in the same vein as former bowler Glenn McGrath erroneously did prior to the 2005 series, when England shocked Australia to win 2-1?
The 49-year-old said: “You’d better ask Glenn McGrath that question.
“When I was captain, we tried to win every Test match. That was our goal. But we never went into a series saying we’re going to win 5-0. It was ‘how are we going to play this next Test match really well?’.
“And I’ve played enough sport and watched enough sport to know that anything is possible, any turnaround is possible. There’s nothing to say that England can’t win the Ashes series, but they’ve got to start turning things round quickly and injuries to key players — if Mitchell Johnson or Michael Clarke go down injured in the Ashes series — you just never know. It can throw the team dynamic out.”
