HOW TO SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE THE GABBA?

England begin their Ashes quest in Australia at a venue that is not their friend

Everyone associated with English cricket knows the problem but the solution still seems so far away.

As Joe Root and his troops touch down in Brisbane this week, they know history is against them.

Australians take great pride in their unbeaten record at the Gabba - the streak is rapidly approaching its 30th birthday, making it some three years older than the England captain - and the Baggy Green machine has developed an almost faultless strategy for bringing their guests into the first game of an Ashes series disorganised and undercooked.

The methodology has become so predictable - keep the tourists out of Queensland for as long as possible, offer up little more than gentle medium pace in any warm-ups and then throw an underprepared top order at the mercy of a fierce seam attack.

Predictable... but still devastatingly effective.

Since 1986, when England last won in Brisbane, the visitors have not passed 400 in the first innings of an Ashes Test away from home.

In those seven matches, they’ve only gone beyond 300 twice and have recorded four scores sub-200.

These innings set the mood for a series.

Year	Toss won by	Option	First-innings score	Result
2013	Australia	Bat	295	AUS won by 381 runs
2010	England	Bat	260	DRAW
2006	Australia	Bat	609-9d	AUS won by 277 runs
2002	England	Bowl	492	AUS won by 384 runs
1998	Australia	Bat	485	DRAW
1994	Australia	Bat	426	AUS won by 184 runs
1990	Australia	Bowl	194	AUS won by 10 wickets
1986	Australia	Bowl	456	ENG  won by 7 wickets
1982	Australia	Bowl	411	DRAW
1978	Australia	Bat	116	ENG  won by 7 wickets
1974	Australia	Bat	309	AUS won by 166 runs
1970	Australia	Bat	433	DRAW

 

The Poms have taken steps to negate their mistakes of the past - arriving in Queensland early and acclimatising with a warm-up game in the region rather than stepping into a Test scenario without any prior conditioning.

Interestingly, on the only two tours since World War Two that opened with an England victory at Brisbane - 1978-79 and 1986-87, similar matches were planned in the subtropical warmth of north east Australia.

Common sense, it appears, has been applied by those at the ECB in charge of scheduling.

But a four-day game against a Cricket Australia XI that is hardly likely to excite or challenge the likes of Alastair Cook and Root - or significantly test the unproven and thus-far fragile England batting lineup - will not be enough to put the tourists in the right frame of mind or deliver them the necessary strength of spirit before the first ball is bowled at the Gabba on November 23.

Any sportsperson needs to be inspired by his or her surroundings and, for travelling parties, there is little about the concrete dream-wrecking bowl set just off the Brisbane River that inspires.

_{Alastair Cook (235*) and Jonathan Trott (135*) on day five at the Gabba, 2010}

For the natives, it is a totally different story.

Australians have come to expect victory, or at very least a draw that could have turned into a win with the benefit of a sixth day.

They expect to see their guests obliterated inside five or six sessions and left to hang on til the end, like a climber clawing for a rocky outcrop on a sheer cliff.

In 2013 and again in 2006, England were decimated when they took to the crease for the first time in the series - for 136 and 157 respectively. The tables tipped so violently in Australia’s favour on both occasions that there was never any suggestion of the balance being redressed.

Likewise, in 2010, only a sensational rearguard effort from Andrew Strauss, Cook and Jonathan Trott put the tourists into a position to claim a draw after they were skittled for 260 first up.

_{"We'll have a bowl"}

And that was a team that routinely racked up monster first-innings totals. Root and Co are spectacularly inconsistent - this summer they picked up two series victories with just two first-innings totals over 400.

To break the Brisbane curse will require stoicism and stamina. Perhaps just as importantly, England could do with Root actually winning the toss.

In the past 50 years, the touring English captain has only called correctly on two occasions at the start of an Ashes series Down Under - and one of those led to Nasser Hussain’s fateful decision to bowl on a batting paradise in 2002.

Guessing right is good fortune but thereafter Root and his team can make their own luck. History and form say England are underdogs at the Gabba. It’s time to kick the habit of a lifetime.

MORE FROM THE CRICKETER: All you need to know ahead of the first Ashes Test