XI wishes for the Jaipur Ashes

Australia are firm favourites. England are clear underdogs. England will have to be at their best to win. Australia can probably win without being at their best. The Diwali meeting between the two sides in Jaipur is the Ashes in miniature. There should really be a special trophy for the occasion: a one-inch high urn, containing the remains of a tiny firecracker.

Here are eleven wishes for the game.

1. A truer surface. Nobody’s expecting a 330 pitch, let alone a 430, but a 230 would be good.

2. A close game. Cricket has nothing to show more dull than a 50-over match that flows in only one direction.

3. Some nip from Glenn McGrath. A great fast-bowling career shouldn’t end with military medium. Let’s see the old boy back at 85mph.

4. An outing for Jon Lewis. England will be tempted to play both their tall guys, Harmison and Mahmood, in order to dish it out like they did at the Rose Bowl in the first meeting of 2005. But Lewis is a better one-day bowler than either, and his brand of accuracy is just what these eccentric pitches cry out for. Don’t forget, he played at the Rose Bowl – and took four wickets on debut.

5. A day without shoulder-shoving or verbal onslaughts.

6. Some runs for Andrew Flintoff. Last Sunday he did a good job of leading from the back, but it’s not his way.

7. Some runs for Shane Watson. It’s a bold move to open with him rather than the solid anchorman Simon Katich. It means that for possibly the first time ever, Australia are opening the innings with two men who are not specialist batsmen, though Adam Gilchrist is as good as. Mind you, England have two non-specialists at three and four – Flintoff and Michael Yardy.

8. Fewer wides from England. The seamers, and especially Harmison, owe it to Flintoff to bowl the way he would himself if he was fit: fast and straight.

9. Smart captaincy. Ricky Ponting shuffled his bowlers well on Wednesday and got some tight overs out of Michael Clarke. Flintoff, boxed into a corner by his batsmen, didn’t even try England’s dibbly-dobbly options, which may have been a missed trick.

10. Some runs from Ian Bell. He had done nothing to earn a place in the last Ashes, and it showed in his mousey performances. Now he is ready, and can show the Aussies what a classy player he really is, if he can overcome the drawback of having to open the innings with another non-dasher in Andrew Strauss. On paper one side’s openers are too wacky, the other’s are too straight.

11. Sharper commentary. Wednesday’s memorable encounter between Australia and West Indies was not reflected in the com-box, which dealt mostly in statements of the dismally obvious. Silence or insight, please, gentlemen.