Ashes series 2023: England v Australia could go either way - Allan Lamb

Allan LambRex Features

Allan Lamb made his sole Test century against Australia at Headingley in 1985 - an innings of 125

Former Test batter Allan Lamb is fully behind England's Bazball approach but thinks this summer's series against Australia "could go either way".

Lamb played in five Ashes series and was on the winning side in England in 1985 and down under in 1986-87.

England have won 11 of their past 13 Tests with Ben Stokes as captain.

"If you give freedom to anyone and say 'go out and play and enjoy it, you know you're not going to get dropped', you feel a million dollars," said Lamb.

"I was playing golf with the England players and chatting to Popey [Ollie Pope] and [Zak] Crawley. They say they've got a unit, everyone backs them, they're in for the five Test matches and they're going to go and play.

"It's not rocket science - if you give confidence to anyone in any job, and say 'listen, we're backing you, even if you make a few hiccups', he'll do well," the 68-year-old told BBC Radio Northampton.

Lamb scored 4,656 runs in 79 Tests, including 14 hundreds, and also played at three World Cups.

And he believes England's method echoes the mindset he tried to instil during his time as skipper of Northamptonshire.

"It's fine occupying the crease, but if you don't score runs, you're still going to have problems when you lose wickets.

"In the old days, they'd say 'you openers, you take the shine off the ball' and if you had a Test match and you got 200-1, you'd had a great day.

"I remember captaining Northamptonshire and saying to the players, 'we've got to be looking to score runs off every ball and if we can score 400-500 in a day, we can win these games' - and we did. We won more than drawing games."

However, anyone who thought of attempting strokes like the modern-day ramp, scoop or lap would quickly find themselves out of the team.

"At Northampton, the first person to try it was Mushtaq Mohammed. [Club secretary] Ken Turner met him on the steps, because he got out, and said 'if you ever play that again, you'll be out of the county' - it just shows how things have changed," said Lamb, who received treatment for prostate cancer in 2021-22.

Both England and Australia have problems with injuries among their bowlers.

Lamb added: "Australia have got a great attack but it looks like [Josh] Hazelwood is going to be a struggle for them.

"[Pat] Cummins and [Mitchell] Starc are going to be the key men. If Starc can get it right, we've got problems but he's one of these guys that if it doesn't go well, he can just not do it.

"I think it's going to be very close, it could go either way."

The first England v Australia Test starts at Edgbaston on 16 June.

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