Former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie has claimed that the presence Darren Lehmann in the Australian camp gives the visitors an edge in the upcoming Ashes Test series.
According to him appointing Lehman just 16 days before the 2013 series, was one of the most significant moments in Australian cricket’s recent history and the results since – a 5-0 Ashes whitewash later that year, a series win in South Africa and the World Cup earlier this year – are testament to that.
Gillespie said, “Boof, as Lehman is known around the sport, has overseen an incredible transformation in fortunes for the national side in his two years in the job. Before he arrived, we had lost our way a little bit. Everything I heard come out from Cricket Australia and Boof’s predecessor, Mickey Arthur, seemed to revolve around the future; I felt they had became obsessed with it, at the expense of the here and now of winning games of cricket.”
“But Boof came in and his immediate response was to reverse this mentality and start devising plans that revolved around achieving success as quickly as possible. That first Ashes series in 2013 – and bear in mind he had just over a fortnight to prepare – became about experimentation: trying to find the right players in the right positions to do damage in the series that followed. And damage England they certainly did.
The same thing happened in one-day cricket. Some of the chat previously had been about building towards winning the 2019 World Cup and to simply compete in the tournament that came before. Darren looked at the tools at his disposal and simply disagreed. Sure enough they went on to lift the trophy as unquestionably the best team in the tournament.
Lets see if Lehman can guide his team to victory in the quest of the coveted urn which begins on 8th July in Cardiff.