Celebration on hold as Aussies head back to work

Steve Smith was gifted a magnum of fancy French fizz as player of the match in the opening Ashes Test, but there was no volley of popping corks audible from the Australia dressing room at Edgbaston post-match.

Rather, it hosted a scene not dissimilar from other workplaces on a summer's Monday afternoon, as colleagues sat around sharing a quiet knock-off time drink and chatted for about what they'd got up to over the preceding days.

For even in a city like Birmingham, with its reputation for hard-core parties that spill the length of inner-city Broad Street on a Friday and Saturday night, the start of a new week simply heralds more work immediately ahead.

And despite winning the opening Test of an Ashes campaign in England for the first time in 14 years, that's the mindset adopted by Tim Paine and his men.

As Paine – whose first victory abroad as the men's team Test captain was secured by a crushing margin in a stunning turnaround – emphasised post-game, his team's individual and collective KPIs extend far beyond a single victory.

"There's still four Tests to go and we aren't here to win the first Test at Edgbaston – we're here to win the Ashes," Paine said in the immediate aftermath of Australia's 251-run triumph.

"We've been really clear on that for some time. It's a huge step in the right direction, but we're certainly not satisfied with that.

"Tonight will be quite a different feel to most Test wins we've had.

"We're over here to do something that a lot of teams from Australia have struggled to do and we realise that if we can do it, it will be spoken about for a hell of a long time. That's what is driving us."

There was a historical element that ensured no over-the-top celebration of a partial-job well done, despite acknowledgement from both teams that England had essentially won the opening Test's first three days only to be walloped in the final phases.

Current men's team coach Justin Langer was part of that 2005 Australia outfit that was the most recent to start an Ashes campaign in the UK with a win – at Lord's, in similarly thumping style.

And it was the hubris that flowed in the hours after that heady success which sowed the seeds for subsequent defeat, and then disaster.

At the height of that immodesty, the Australia touring party took themselves into the (then deserted) home team dressing rooms at Lord's where Langer led a boisterous, if ill-advised, rendition of the team victory song.

It's an episode that is still recounted with sheepish shame by chastened members of that group, given that Australia failed to win another Test in that epic series and have won just five of 20 matches against England on their home patch since that graceless night.

But there's also a pragmatic explanation for the comparative temperance shown by Paine and Langer's squad.

The tightly compacted nature of this Ashes series, scheduled as it has been after Britain hosted a two-month World Cup tournament, means the players who dragged Australia back from a dire 8-122 in the series' opening hours have but a solitary RDO before their next work day.

A three-day tour match against Worcestershire (less than 50km down the M5 from Birmingham) starts on Wednesday, before preparation is fine-tuned for the second Test at Lord's from August 14.

Paine indicated that the Test squad members who were also a key part of the World Cup campaign – namely Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon – would be rested from the Worcester game, with Test quicks Peter Siddle and James Pattinson also expected to watch from the sidelines.

That would whittle the 17-strong playing group down to a bare minimum starting XI, with auxiliary pace bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood given an opportunity to push for selection at Lord's.

"One of the reasons we picked so many bowlers was because we knew this Ashes series was going to be wearing on our bowlers, especially the guys who were at the World Cup," Paine said on Monday.

"We've got two world-class bowlers (Starc and Hazlewood) sat on the sidelines raring to go.

"I imagine they'll bowl in the tour game, and then put their hand up for selection.

"We'll look at the pitch when we get to Lord's (next weekend) and then make our selections on what will be the best combination to get us 20 wickets."

If Australia are vexed by which players to squeeze in, then England are being swamped with gratuitous advice on how many of the XI that failed at Edgbaston should be cast out.

Skipper Joe Root spent a significant portion of his post-match media conference defending members of the team that began the series in a blaze of domination but looked increasingly bereft of answers as the match played out.

Specifically, Root was asked about the short-term futures of opener Jason Roy and spin-bowling allrounder Moeen Ali, as well as the wisdom of playing star seamer James Anderson who suffered another right calf injury and was restricted to bowling just four overs.

It seems unlikely that Anderson will be risked at Lord's and his involvement in the remainder of the series rests on further examination of scans taken of his damaged leg last week.

His likely replacement looms as World Cup hero Jofra Archer, who himself sustained a side strain at the end of that tournament and has not played a first-class fixture for almost a year.

Archer, who is part of England's 14-man Ashes squad, will turn out for Sussex's second XI in a game against Gloucestershire later this week to prove that he's recovered and ready for a Test match call-up should it arrive.

But Root claimed the experience with Anderson, who had declared himself fully fit for the Edgbaston Test having missed the previous week's match against Ireland due to a calf injury, would not render England hyper-conservative when selecting their Lord's line-up.

"He (Anderson) passed every medical test – he was fit to play," Root said at the Test's conclusion.

"It's one of those freak scenarios where he pulled up – because it's the same calf, we're not sure whether it's a slightly different injury, we'll have to wait to see what the scans say.

"But it's an easy thing to look back on and say we'd have done things differently.

"It was a unanimous decision for him to play.

"With Jofra, we're in a slightly different situation where he'll have played a lot of cricket in between and we'll have a clearer idea of where he's at.

"We'll turn up to Lord's and make sure in the next few days we don't make any shotgun decisions.

"We're very clear about how we're going to select the squad and go from there."

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2019/08/6royout?la=en&hash=6F7D436EFB7B0E85D081DB804E0A715DC4EC2D64 Image Caption: Roy charges and is bowled by Lyon // Getty

Roy's methods were questioned on the final day at Edgbaston after he charged down the pitch to try and belt Nathan Lyon through the leg side, only to miss a sharply turning delivery by some margin and was bowled.

While offering no guarantees on places within the second Test starting XI, Root pointed out that Roy – an explosive limited-overs opener who boasts little experience in that specialist role at first-class level – has been included because of his ability to counter-attack rival bowlers.

The clear suggestion being that the right-hander will keep his place despite calls for a more traditional, stolid batter to fill the position.

Image Id: https://www.cricket.com.au/~/media/News/2019/08/6moeenout?la=en&hash=8528E5BB8501C36F9962297549A3FEA125374289 Image Caption: Moeen was dismissed by Lyon for a ninth time in 11 innings // Getty

Root was less slightly effusive in support for Moeen whose bowling lacked penetration on a pitch that increasingly aided spinners, and who contributed scores of 0 and 4 having again surrendered his wicket to rival tweaker Lyon in both innings.

"Moeen didn't have his best day yesterday," Root said at game's end, reflecting on the spinner's day four return of 2-130 from 29 overs.

"That can't happen every game for someone (like him). With Mo, you've got to remember how threatening he can be and what an asset he has been to this team in the past.

"Whenever written off before, he generally comes back stronger, especially in English conditions.

"It's very easy to make emotional decisions right now. We're in a fortunate position where there's a long time (nine days) between these two Test matches.

"We've got make sure we take in all the information about how we want to approach the next game and make a call from there."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

England squad: Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

First Test: Australia defeat England by 251 runs at Edgbaston

Tour match: Australians v Worcestershire, August 7-9

Second Test: August 14-18,Lord's

Third Test: August 22-26, Headingley

Tour match:Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: September 4-8, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: September 12-16, The Oval