Keeping urn is not enough: Australia want to win Ashes series in England

I n the hours and days after the 2019 Ashes had been run and drawn in England, the careful wording from the touring country was all about retention. That was the focus of the congratulatory press release from Cricket Australia. Those around the camp who before the fifth Test had talked up victory had to temper it and explain that their primary job had been to hold on to the tiny urn, and that ultimately they were satisfied. “Retain” was pasted in for “win”, with the audible hint of an invisible asterisk.

Much about the effort was extraordinary. Start with Steve Smith’s 774 runs despite missing a Test and a half with concussion, after 16 months out suspended. Only Donald Bradman, Everton Weekes, and Viv Richards have exceeded that series tally without facing more innings. Australia had withstood Jofra Archer’s fiercest to draw at Lord’s, taken a first-innings advantage after enduring the season’s toughest batting conditions in Leeds, lost that match to a once-in-a-lifetime performance, then collected themselves to recover and win in Manchester.

Yet it was Smith who first broke ranks. As weeks became months, perhaps fed up with being feted, he suggested more than once that he didn’t take as much satisfaction out of those 774 runs as people might expect, given they had come in a shared scoreline. He really wanted his best work to be in a win. It was never a secret, more an acknowledgement of an imperfect reality, but as the next England trip grew nearer, others too become more candid.

By the time current captain Pat Cummins was standing on the Edgbaston turf ahead of the series about to start, he was explicit. “After the other day there was a bit of talk that we’d ticked off the World Test Championship, the T20 World Cup,