Mike Gatting reckons England still have a good chance of winning the ongoing Ashes as Australia’s batting line-up ‘looks a bit fragile’.
The visitors fought back from a first innings collapse to register a thumping win and take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. However, the former England captain feels the dynamics of the series will be a lot different if the hosts can find a way to get Steve Smith out early.
“It’ll be interesting to see how Australia cope with that,” said the 62-year-old after launching the book Fortune Turners in Mumbai.
Including the Ashes, Gatting spoke on a range of topics during an interaction with reporters on Thursday.
Here are excerpts:
Remainder of the ongoing Ashes series...
England have a huge mountain to climb. I think it’s going to be an interesting series because every Test match will have a result. So it’s a questing of who recovers more quickly after this. England will try to win the Lord’s Test for sure, not just go for a draw. The two batting sides are very similar. Australia were 122/8 and it was only Steve Smith who held their innings together, so it’ll be interesting to see how they cope if he gets out early. I’m not saying Australia are a one-man team, I just think their batting line-up looks a bit fragile. But obviously, they’re in a good space and there will be results. It’s just a matter of one or two of our batters coming to form. What worries me is Moeen Ali’s form. He hasn’t bowled well and has really been taken apart. I’m expecting the Lord’s pitch to be a bit greener than the one at Edgbaston.
Nathan Lyon vs Moeen Ali...
Nathan Lyon is probably one of the best, if not the best, off-spinners in the world at the moment. He’s a fantastic bowler who always seems to find the right pace and gets plenty of revs on the ball. Poor Moeen Ali, though, wasn’t sure how to get the ball at the other end [in the first Ashes Test]. Sadly, that’s how it looked. He bowled loose balls and didn’t get the pace right, Steve Smith played him really well. But Lyon was just outstanding. In the second innings he bowled how you’d expect a world class spinner to bowl.
Steve Smith’s brilliance...
He’s really huge for Australia. He’s in good form and is a difficult guy to bowl at. The one thing he does is get his head still, to the off-stump and in a good position. And he has an amazing way of maneuvering the ball around. He keeps playing this well in every Ashes series and for England it all comes down to whether or not they can get him out cheaply. I’ve heard Jofra Archer can swing the red ball, and he certainly has the pace, so maybe he’ll be able to threaten Smith a bit. If Archer keeps it wicket-to-wicket and gets a bit of nip early on, Smith might find that difficult to face at 90 mph. But he might not be bothered at all since he’s in such good nick.
The ‘great’ Virat Kohli...
He has said that Test cricket for him is the pinnacle, which I think is a wonderful thing to say. He must be put under so much pressure from T20 leagues to say T20 is the best, but he hasn’t. He has said if you have to be regarded as a great player, you have to play Test cricket. That’s fantastic. He plays all forms of the game with such greatness, which I don’t think you see from a lot of other players, and possibly might not. Yes, Kane Williamson is very good now. Yes, Steve Smith has reignited his career and his ability to play one-day cricket, but to see someone like Virat perform so regularly and so well in all three formats...he does, without doubt, deserve that tag of great.
Anecdote from Sachin Tendulkar’s early days...
I remember a lovely story during our tour to India in 1992-93. I think he was just generally very interested in the game. He came up to me and asked: “Mr Gatting, can I borrow your bat.” Firstly, I thought to myself no one has ever called me ‘Mr Gatting’. He was obviously just trying to learn more and more. He said: “Mr Gatting, the middle of your bat is very high up. You must find it very difficult to bat in India. Our pitches keep so low.” It was a fascinating situation where he was just genuinely interested in learning but almost ended up helping us. It was amazing to see his career go from strength to strength since that time.
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