Strauss a better captain than Vaughan?

[shravi]

Right. But even then, he didn't have McGrath, Warne, Gillespie, Lee, etc to handle all at their peak. Plus Hayden, Langer, Gilchrist...holy guacamole.

On a side note, Gillespie was hardly at his peak. That series destroyed his career thereafter and Lee was still not at his peak. His peak was very short lived. It came when he had to spearhead the attack in test cricket (i.e. India's last tour of Australia), but it never lasted long due to persistent injuries.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

+ Vaughan's 2005 team was great. Flintoff and Simon Jones in such dangerous bowling form, KP and Tresco scoring runs, Geraint Jones and Giles actually didn't suck...

Oh, and Harmison was a lethal weapon.

 

[sifter132]

On a side note, Gillespie was hardly at his peak. That series destroyed his career thereafter and Lee was still not at his peak. His peak was very short lived. It came when he had to spearhead the attack in test cricket (i.e. India's last tour of Australia), but it never lasted long due to persistent injuries.

Plus McGrath only played in half the '05 series after he trod on the ball - that incident probably saved England's arse IMHO because Gillespie and Kasprowicz were absolute cannon fodder by that stage of their careers and Lee was a bit hit and miss. It was Warne v England really.

 

[angryangy]

Looking back and having looked at replays in more recent times, I don't think there was too much different from Lee, Gillespie and Kasprowicz to the likes of Johnson, Siddle and Bollinger more recently in England. Sure Gillespie had lost pace and it was visible throughout that previous summer, but it didn't quite look ridiculous until the Ashes.

 

[sifter132]

Yeah that's pretty fair. Gillespie was belted out of the game during that Ashes, but it still needed reasonable batting to do it. But at least we KNEW he could do better, having been a very successful bowler previously. With Siddle and even Johnson to a lesser extent there are still a lot of questions about their true ability. And I would have loved to see a fit Brett Lee in '09 he bowled so well in that tour game, but oh well - can't change it now

 

[calebelfc]

Yeah that's pretty fair. Gillespie was belted out of the game during that Ashes, but it still needed reasonable batting to do it. But at least we KNEW he could do better, having been a very successful bowler previously. With Siddle and even Johnson to a lesser extent there are still a lot of questions about their true ability. And I would have loved to see a fit Brett Lee in '09 he bowled so well in that tour game, but oh well - can't change it now

I agree about Lee's absence in 09. The Aussie bowling attack in that series was mainly Johnson, Siddle, Hauritz, Hillfenhaus (and Clark for a few at the end). Only one of those bowlers had any Ashes experience and he only played the last 2. Lee's stats may not look all that spectacular but what he would of offered as well as pace and experience is intensity. Siddle was the only bowler who in my eyes showed any sign of intensity in the whole series. Yes, Johnson had a few encounters with Broad but he was spraying it all over the square so didn't really put the fear of God into us English. Was a big miss last year and after that tour match, we were glad that the McGrath curse had struck again, (to a lesser extent, of course).