Tour of Australia  2010-11                   Captain :  Andrew Strauss           

England’s 99th Test tour.

(October 2010 -

         February 2011)

Fortieth Test playing tour of Australia by England

    (previous tour  2006-07)

Despite the ‘boot camp' trip to Germany resulting in James Anderson suffering a broken rib, England’s preparations for the 2010-11 Ashes tour were regarded as ideal. In the previous 18 months they had beaten Australia and Pakistan, and held South Africa to a draw, and the leading players were all coming to the peak of their form. There were three first-class matches which were treated competitively rather than as gentle warm-ups, which fine-tuned the batting line-up, while the bowlers had specialist preparation in Brisbane. All the same, Australia were on top in the Brisbane Test before Alastair Cook began his record-breaking sequence of run-making.

England won, emphatically achieving three victories by an innings, taking an Ashes series in Australia for the first time since 1986-87. England may have flown home battered and bruised from a 6-1 drubbing in the one-day series but the 3-1 Ashes win had made it a great tour.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

Bangladesh 2009-10

Next Test tour

v Pakistan in UAE 2011-12

Next tour of  Australia

2013-14

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:  Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook

Middle-order batsmen Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan

Wicket-keeper: Matt Prior, Steve Davies.

Slow bowlers:  Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar

Fast bowlers:   James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan

  ⋄  ECB central contracts

County representation:

Dm - Durham (1)

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

La - Lancashire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (3)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sy - Surrey (1)

Sx - Sussex (2)

Wk - Warwickshire (2)

Wo - Worcestershire (1

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(25 November 2010): 

   27 yrs  8 months.

  ⋄  ECB central contract

T20 / ODI : member of the squad for Commonwealth Bank T20 and ODI series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Strauss 77,  Pietersen 66,  Collingwood 63,  Cook 60,  Bell 57,  Anderson 52,  Panesar 39, Prior 35,  Broad 32,  Swann 24,  Trott 13,  Finn 8,  Bresnan 5,  Tremlett 3, Davies 0,  Morgan 0.

⋆Tour Officials

Selectors

Geoff Miller (national selector),  James Whittaker,  Ashley Giles,  Andy Flower (team director.

Selection

Tour Party Announced  :  23 September 2010.

Not selected:  Ravi Bopara,  Adil Rashid,  Ajmal Shahzad.

There were seven ‘survivors’ from England’s last tour down under in 2006-07 when they lost 5-0.

T20 and ODI party announced :  10 December 2010.

Withdrawn : Craig Kieswetter   Michael Lumb was called in to the T20 squad because Craig needed a minor operation.

Time between selection and departure from England

   36 days

 (23 September - 29 October)

Travel

London  Q  Perth

The team went on a five-day ‘boot camp’ in Bavaria, Germany, before the tour, during which Jimmy Anderson suffered a broken rib in a boxing match. Kevin Pietersen played for KwaZulu Natal before the tour, getting coaching from Graham Ford.

The team flew out of Heathrow Airport on 29 October and arrived in Perth the next day. Wives and partners were excluded until halfway through the Test series.  Ajmal Shahzad flew out with the Test squad as an extra bowler for the preliminary tour matches, and then joined the England Performance squad.

Time spent in Australia

    100 days

(30 October -  7 February)

On-tour selection panel

-

Reinforcements

Ajmal Shahzad played in the first-class matches against Australia A and Victoria but did not join the tour party officially until the T20 series.

Stuart Broad was ruled out of the tour after the second Test match with a torn stomach muscle.

Liam Plunkett came into the squad for the 7th ODI when Chris Tremlett and Ajmal Shahzad returned home early.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:   

    26 days

(30 October - 25 November)

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Anderson,  Bell,  Collingwood,  Cook,  Pietersen,  Prior,  Strauss,  Swann,  Trott.

3  -   Finn,  Tremlett

2  -   Bresnan,  Broad

0  -   Davies,  Morgan,  Panesar.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

Highlights

•   Alastair Cook’s Test scores were  67, 235*, 148, 32, 13, 82 and 189, totalling 766 runs,

•   England amassed 517-1 to save the Test at Brisbane with centuries from Strauss (110), Cook (235*) and Trott (135*)

•   Kevin Pietersen’s 227 at Adelaide was his first Test century since March 2009

•   Graeme Swann took 5-91 at Adelaide, his best figures in Australia.

•   Jimmy Anderson took wickets consistently througout the series, collecting 24 at an average of 26.04

•   Steven Finn (6-125 at Brisbane) and Chris Tremlett (5-87 at Perth and 4-26 at Melbourne) gave support

•   Jonathan Trott’s 168* at Melbourne helped him to a series average of 89.

•   Ian Bell (115) and Matthew Prior (118) each scored their maiden hundreds against Australia in the Sydney Test.

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Perth  Q  London

Anderson flew home for a week after the second Test on Tuesday 7 December to be with his wife at the birth of their daughter and returned to Perth on Monday 13 December.  He then went back to England again on 8 January for a ten-day break before returning on 22 January for the remainder of the ODI series.

Stuart Broad flew back home with an abdominal muscle tear, not leaving until after the third Test.

Five players left the limited-overs section of the tour early because of injury during the protracted Commonwealth Bank series: Eoin Morgan sustained a break to the middle finger on his left hand; Tim Bresnan strained a calf muscle; Graeme Swann strained his back and knee, Ajmal Shahzad pulled his hamstring, and Chris Tremlett had a side strain.

The tour party departed from Perth on Monday 7 February on a 24-hour flight that landed at Heathrow Airport, London, on 8 February.  Within three days the one-day side needed to be ready to fly off again for the 2011 World Cup.

Time away from England

  102 days 

 (29 October - 8 February)

Finances

Tour Book

“Winning The Ashes Down Under”   by Andrew Strauss  (Hodder and Stoughton, 2011)

“Australian Autopsy: How England Dissected Australia in the 2010/11 Ashes”  by Jarrod Kimber (Pitch Publishing, 2011)

Postscript

Cricket Australia brought the next Ashes series down under forward to 2013-14.  A Cricket Australia spokesman said : “The Ashes make turnstiles spin and they drive the ratings up. In terms of the next media contract, it's an ideal starting point because it's a lucrative blue chip series” . Steve Elworthy, the ECB's marketing director, agreed with the revised schedule, which helped avoid playing for the Ashes in the same winter as the World Cup.

What was not foreseen was the tiredness and lack of drive that playing ten matches in a row between England and Australia would bring about in 2013, resulting in two lop-sided series, each side playing poorly away from home.

Other Test tours in 2010-11

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group);  Jamaica Gleanor archive;  National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.

From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online:  The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.

cricketweb.net;  ESPN cricinfo;  cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint

Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.

Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)

Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                     ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE  ARE COPYRIGHT