It's good to start well, but let's not get fixated

I notice that Andrew Strauss has, very sensibly, been playing down the importance of the first session tonight. The obsession with the start of the series seems to be the legacy of Steve Harmison’s extraordinary wide in Brisbane four years ago, a moment that I saw described this week as ‘breaking the world record for the most people shouting “Oh for fuck’s sake” simultaneously’, but it doesn’t really reflect the reality of test cricket. England lost the test at Brisbane in 2006 because they were playing a better team that was better lead and better prepared, not because of Harmison’s wide. If we want to look at a session of play that truly defined that series it came on the fifth day at Adelaide when England, having played some excellent cricket, first stagnated and then fell to pieces.

It’s also instructive to look at 2005 and 2009. Much has been made of Harmison hitting Justin Langer in the first over at Lord’s, and it was a spectacular moment, but it glosses over the fact that England lost that test by 239 runs. The one test in that series where the first session was important was at Edgbaston where England, mysteriously put in and buoyed by the non-appearance of Glenn McGrath, swung the momentum back their way with a whole range of aggressive strokes. In the other tests, though, the first session was simply an introduction to the rest of the test.

In 2009, England’s capitulation on the first morning at Headingley set the game up for Australia it is true, but the two Australian defeats had their roots in other events. It’s certainly true that Mitchell Johnson’s execrable opening overs got England off to a flyer at Lord’s, but it was the spectaular Australian collapse on the second afternoon that really put them in charge. Likewise, the first day at the Oval ended honours even – in this case it was the session after lunch on the second day that made the difference.

I could go on, but I shall spare you. The real point is this: we’re all keyed up about the start of the Ashes but the events of tonight, regardless of what they are, will not determine the destination of the urn. Cricket, I’m pleased to say, is rather more complicated than that.