If hosts can whitewash tourists in ODIs they will rule world in all forms of game

Stern test: Alastair Cook says achieving No 1 ranking in
all forms of the game would be 'amazing'.

England can go where no cricket team has gone before and become the top-ranked side in all three forms of the game if they whitewash Australia 5-0 in the forthcoming NatWest Series. 

It may seem fanciful that they would win every match against Michael Clarke’s side, the current No 1 ranked 50-over side, but this England team under Andy Flower have risen to every challenge they have set themselves bar winning the World Cup. But if that remains a notable absentee in their burgeoning trophy cabinet, steps are under way to address it starting with this one-day series, scheduled here as a reciprocal arrangement to the five one-day matches England want to play ahead of the 2015 World Cup in Australia.
 

Modern cricketers do not look too far ahead and Alastair Cook was predictably cautious about making any Glenn McGrath-like predictions of a clean sweep.

Yet as a plodder and a donkey (as one scribe famously described Cook’s one-day credentials) who has confounded every critic with the caterpillar to butterfly transformation of his one-day batting, he will doubtless be more confident of his team’s chances of achieving a 5-0 result than he is letting on, especially as England have won six of their last home one-day series.

“It would be an amazing achievement to be top in all formats but I don’t want it to be blown out of proportion,” Cook said on Thursday. “We are very much a developing one-day side and we’re desperate to keep going up the rankings. But let’s not get too carried away. It’s the start of a series against the current world No 1 side, something they’ve proved over a number of years. We’re going to have to be at our absolute best to try to win the series.”

Australia tend to peak against the old enemy and, while they were well beaten in the last Ashes series, they have yet to bend their knee to England in 50-over cricket. Clarke, a maligned figure when he first took over the captaincy, has since proved himself an adept and aggressive leader of a young team beginning to hit their stride.

“England have won their last six series playing some really consistent cricket so it’s important for us to play well and stay at No 1,” Clarke said on Thursday. “Our goal as an Australian cricket team is to be top in all three forms and I hope we can play some good cricket in England to stay there.”

The recent form suggests they will have to play well. England were scarcely troubled by the West Indies for more than an over or two in either the Tests or one-day internationals, while Australia drew the one-day series against Darren Sammy’s side in the Caribbean 2-2, with one game tied.

But then judging what might be from past results is rarely an exact science, or so England will be hoping after winning just one of their last nine ODIs against the Aussies.

The West Indies never really came to terms with the conditions, the slow, seaming pitches and biting wind anathema to their sunny dispositions.

Australia’s seam bowlers will be better equipped to use any movement that might ensue, while, in 19-year old Pat Cummins, they have someone with the genuine pace to disconcert.

Cummins tends to come on first change after Brett Lee and Clint McKay have delivered the opening salvo, a short and tall combination that can test a batsman’s judgment of length. Their bowling after that varies on the skipper’s hunch and how somebody is going on the day.

Xavier Doherty is the spinner of choice at present but could find it difficult to contain on English pitches that tend to offer precious little grip until later in the year. Thereafter a combination of Shane Watson’s muscular seamers, the captain’s left-arm skidders and David Hussey’s off-breaks fill the remaining overs, a kaleidoscopic approach in direct contrast to England’s use of five specialist bowlers.

Australia bat deeper than England, who have Tim Bresnan at seven, a consequence of playing those specialists as opposed to an all-rounder.

David Warner will open the batting, probably with Shane Watson, though Matthew Wade, the Australia wicket-keeper touted as the new Adam Gilchrist, could team up with the big-hitting Warner if the pitch looks true.

For this first game, at least, the contest will be the batting depth of the visitors against the bowling depth of the home team - as much a test of ideologies as of mettle.