England seek their own Bradman in bid for historic Ashes comeback

Donald Bradman's Australians, in the 1936/37 Ashes, are the only team to have come from 2-0 down to win a five-match series in the entire 148-year history of Test cricket.

England do not have a cricketer to compare with Bradman but they boast two modern giants of the game in captain Ben Stokes and Joe Root.

Stokes has fired sporadically during the current tour, while Root scored his first-ever century in Australia in the second Test in Brisbane.

Realistically, England now need at least one of their players to have the series of their lives if they are to have any chance of a first series win in Australia since 2010/11.

Bradman, who died in Adelaide in 2001 at the age of 92, had a Test batting average of 99.94 -- which puts him in a category of his own in the history of the game.

"The Don" uncharacteristically failed to get off the mark in two of his first three innings of the 1936/37 series, in Brisbane and Sydney.

But he went on to score a mammoth 690 runs, including three hundreds -- two of them double centuries -- in the final three Tests.

"It was among the peaks of his career, and Don's career had many peaks," cricket historian David Frith told AFP.

"He didn't just make a lot of runs, he did it while under pressure and when captaining the team."

The tide turned for Australia during an extraordinary third Test in Melbourne when they had collapsed and were 181-6 on a good batting pitch before the rain came.

With pitches then uncovered, the surface deteriorated and Bradman declared at 200-9 in an attempt to expose England to the treacherous conditions.

"One good length ball would rear to the batsman's chin. Another, exactly the same length, would flash into the blockhole like a stone skimming over ice," wrote celebrated English cricket writer Neville Cardus.

England captain "Gubby" Allen declared at 76-9 in reply and, with the pitch still proving difficult for batting, Bradman reversed his order in the hope that run-scoring would be easier by the time he arrived at the crease.

It was a move as daring as any the present-day England side have made under coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Stokes.

And it paid off spectacularly.
Turnaround
When Australia were reduced to 97-5, success was far from assured, but Bradman, batting at number seven, made 270 and shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 346 with Jack Fingleton (136).

Australia won by the huge margin of 365 runs and did not look back, winning the next match in Adelaide by 148 runs and cantering home, in Melbourne again, by an innings and 200 runs.

Bradman's critics still accused him of cowardice by hiding down the order in the third Test but Frith, who knew the batsman and several of his contemporaries, said: "Don knew what he was doing, he usually did."

The Australian himself, in his book "Farewell to Cricket", wrote: "Some were unkind enough to suggest that my purpose was to avoid batting on a wet wicket.

"Of course it was, but only because such avoidance was necessary in the interests of the team."

It was the kind of single-minded ploy that Stokes might appreciate, though the era of uncovered pitches is now only a distant memory.

McCullum, speaking ahead of the third Test in Adelaide, which starts on Wednesday, indicated that England would stick to their aggressive style come what may as they chase history.

"We know we haven't got enough runs so far in the series," he said. "But for us to go on and win the series it's not about throwing out what's been successful for us over the past few years."

England came close to overturning a 2-0 deficit in the 2023 Ashes at home, ultimately drawing the series after being denied in the fourth Test at Old Trafford by rain.

If they pull it off this time it would be one of the most spectacular feats in the storied history of the game.