Originally Posted by
Mibbes Aye
I think England have benefitted in recent years from having extremely good swing bowlers, Anderson in particular, but the likes of Hoggard as well, combined with Australia not being able to replace the sheer talent they had throughout the team under the latter stages of Allan Border, then Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and the early part of Ricky Ponting's captaincies.
Anderson won't be around in 2019 one would imagine. In some ways what you describe makes it sound more interesting. The dominance Australia had under the skippers I've just mentioned was monumental and they had it in England as well as at home - the Second Test of the 1993 Ashes was probably the epitome - six players batted, Taylor, Slater and Boon all got centuries, big centuries for the latter two, Mark Waugh was bowled for 99, Border bowled for 77 and Steve Waugh was unbeaten on 13 alongside Boon.
Australia then bowled England out twice, with the spinners taking fourteen of the twenty wickets enroute to an innings victory - this was just before the days of McGrath, Gillespie and Lee, with McDermott and Hughes coming towards the end of their international careers. This was during a period when Australia simply came to England and turned them over - four consecutive series victories, fifteen wins and four defeats and the defeats were often when the series was decided and the victories were regularly by an innings or by nine or ten wickets.
I remember that Test vividly and while I enjoyed it immensely, there is an extra edge since 2005, when England started being able to win again. I think it is a bit easier for Australia to win in England than it is for England to win in Australia, but there isn't a valid reason why England can't produce genuine quickies and similarly, the climate for swing does exist in Australia. In addition, Aussie spinners probably gain more going to England than the other way round.