The Trans-Tasman Trophy moves to Sydney this week. The Australian side will take on a sickly New Zealand side, search for their sixth straight Test victory against them, and do so under sick skies.
It will be eerie. The New Year’s Test traditionally occupies that intangibly lazy, hazy mental space between the year end and the year anew. Everyone’s away and everything slows as images of a dazzling harbour and skyline provide the broadcast backdrop to some Australian feat or other as a happy, usually-dead-rubber Test gently brings the Test summer to a close.
Instead, thick smoke is forecast to envelop the ground during its early stages, providing an inescapable, all-too-tangible haze from nearby bushfires. At the ground and across TV, radio and the internet, cricket’s place in the wider conversation will be subtly arm-wrestled and will likely divide itself along the political battle lines we all know. Some will feel the hitherto unseen SCG smoke is yet another signal of existential emergency. Others will say now is not the time, just enjoy the game. It will be interesting to compare the broadcasters on this score.
Others may favour gallows humour. Among club cricketers, the “Pepsi Challenge” is the name given to one’s decision to party on Friday night in anticipation of Saturday wet weather, and by extension, cancellation of play. Given Cricket Australia’s revised air pollution guidelines, club cricketers may now take a Friday night gamble on the Air Quality Index, burgling themselves a night out in anticipation of hazardous air cancelling a Saturday game. The AQI Challenge doesn’t quite have the same ring as the Pepsi Challenge, but this issue will be around long enough that somebody will eventually name it.
New names have ruled this week’s lead-in too. That Mitchell Swepson may be picked in the XI was always going to be the easy story, though pinpointing for whom was not. To this question, Shane Warne suggested that the answer was almost anywhere. Rest a quick. Rest a bat. Rest Lyon. When the latter suggestion was put to him, the now-reflexively abrasive Lyon reminded us that Warne would never have done the same with Stuart MacGill. It was a fair point, though Lyon might be careful drawing comparisons between Swepson and MacGill. If Swepson can offer what MacGill was able to, then might Warne be right?
Swepson went on to laugh the whole thing off while simultaneously welcoming Warne’s support, of course. Though he does so at his peril. Warne’s other pet projects: Riley Meredith for the World Cup, Glenn Maxwell in all three forms, and the big one, D’Arcy Short as the new David Warner, have not (yet) managed to manifest. But Swepson has improved noticeably, and frankly, so far ahead are Australia from their opposition, it would probably do no risk to another Australian victory were he to play.
How does New Zealand rally from here? Reports suggest that both Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls are battling flu symptoms, which can only compound the demoralisation their batters must feel at the prospect of going toe-to-toe with Cummins, Starc, Pattinson, Lyon, et al. Tom Blundell batted brilliantly for his second innings hundred in Melbourne, but it’s difficult to look past the relentlessness of Australia’s fast bowling at this moment. It evokes memories of late last century – if McGrath doesn’t get you, Gillespie will. If you see them off, enjoy Brett Lee. Now that’s done, here’s Shane Warne. For the New Zealand batters, it’s hard to know where the break arrives. Even Marnus Labuschagne now averages a tick over 30 with the ball.
Though while they’re here, the Australian public would do well to enjoy Neil Wagner’s work. Working alongside bowlers of minimal velocity and negligible spin, he has been a one-person wrecking ball, bowling with great skill, intelligence and endurance. Through his bouncer barrage, not one of Australia’s batters has been able to dominate him. Bouncers require so much skill and exertion that bowlers typically use it as a short-term tactic, for physical reasons as much as anything else. But it appears Wagner does not know how to stop. And his intimidation doesn’t cease there. Per his Perth press conference, he also appears to be prepared to pronounce “Labuschagne” in the way Marnus says it’s intended. Few things upset some Australians more.
Cultural vagaries aside, while Friday looms as New Zealand’s last chance to strike a meaningful blow this series, more likely is an Australian procession on the back of unremitting pace and pressure. Though much like Sydney’s fireworks, for many this Test’s joy may be deeply subdued – its hazy spirit now replaced by actual haze.