The Ashes: England’s pace attack evolution under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum

All roads lead to The Ashes.

Where England’s Test side is concerned, everything is viewed through an urn-shaped prism.

They are never more than two-and-a-half years from a potentially generation-defining duel with Australia.

While a home Ashes series is huge, winning in Australia is the holy grail.

Perhaps it is no surprise then England have spent the past four years remodelling their pace attack with the express intention of triumphing in Australia for the first time since 2010-11.

Gone are the more traditional English-style swing and seam bowlers, in their place a battery of hulking quicks capable of clocking 90mph.

«Pace is more important than wickets,» was the message from England men’s managing director Rob Key to bowlers hoping to force their way into the Test squad at the start of last summer.

They have no shortage of pace now, and whatever happens over the next couple of months, England cannot be accused of turning up with a succession of right-arm medium-fast bowlers as they have in recent Ashes tours…

The move towards an attack more suited for Australian conditions began following the appointments of Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes in the spring of 2022.

Their first move was to bring back James Anderson and Stuart Broad, aged 39 and 35 at the time, after they had been dropped for England’s previous Test series in the Caribbean.

For all their many qualities, neither was known for their express pace and, three-and-a-half years on, England’s two leading wicket-takers have both retired from international cricket.

It means a seam attack shorn of 1,308 Test wickets, with the shoulder injury that prompted Chris Woakes’ international retirement taking away another 192.

As such, Stokes’ men are down under with their least experienced bowling unit since that famous triumph in 2010-11.

Stokes is the most experienced with 115 Test caps, Mark Wood has been playing Tests for 10 years but injuries have limited him to just 37 matches and, similarly, six years on from his dazzling debut at Lord’s, Jofra Archer has featured in only 15 Tests.

Yet it is Wood, who last played a Test in August 2024, and Archer, just two Test appearances since 2021, who will be tasked with spearheading the England attack.

Gus Atkinson has perhaps been the biggest find of the post-Broad and Anderson era, with the Surrey quick taking 63 wickets at 22.01 in his first 13 Tests.

Burly South African-born seamer Brydon Carse has also impressed, particularly away from home, while Josh Tongue has shown a handy knack for taking wickets, albeit not always with the control to match.

Durham’s Matthew Potts is also back in the mix almost a year after his last Test.

Like Archer, this will be a first taste of an away Ashes series for that quartet. But England know all too well that experience alone does not win Tests in Australia.

They’re hoping pace and potency does.

To try and find that winning formula, England have used 15 seamers since the Stokes-McCullum era began.

Of the five fast bowlers included in the squad for the first Test, only Stokes featured in that first series against New Zealand.

Across those three matches, the combined average pace of England’s seamers was 81.6mph.

In the 12 series since for which CricViz has data available, that number has generally trended upwards, with England setting a new high of 83.8mph at home to India in the summer.

You can expect that to increase further given Wood, 35, was absent in that India series.

Wood is undoubtedly England’s quickest bowler and, under Bazball, his skiwest average speed across a series is 88.6mph in the 2023 Ashes, with 90.4mph against West Indies a year later his highest.

While keeping Wood fit is crucial, should he miss a match through injury or be rested, unlike England’s last trip to Australia, he should not be the only touring bowler capable of rushing the home batters.

Archer, Carse and Atkinson can all touch 90mphm while a fully fit Stokes was regularly bowling upwards of 85mph over the summer. It bodes well.

In recent years surfaces prepared in Australia have been the fastest, most bouncy and among the most inconsistent in the world.

Pace is undoubtedly one way to exploit that – as Australia left-armer Mitchell Starc has proven for years.

A high release point is another, with Josh Hazlewood a fine example for the hosts, while Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett fulfilled that criteria for England on their last successful visit to Australia 15 years ago.

Broad and Ollie Robinson fall into that category, too, and enjoyed more success than you might remember in the 2021-22 series – averaging 26.3 and 25.54, respectively.

Of the current crop, Carse and Tongue stand out in that regard, while Atkinson and Archer both have high actions.

Add in the angle Stokes’ action creates and the skiddy nature of Wood and, in theory, England have strong variety despite the lack of a left-arm option.

What England need to be careful of, though, is getting carried away with the pace and bounce and bowling too short.

Last winter, the average ball bowled by Australia’s seamers against India pitched 7.29m away from the stumps and while leading wicket-taker Pat Cummins averaged 7.55m, that was still fuller than all except Atkinson (7.39m) of England’s travelling quicks in their most recent home series.

With a bit of nip off the surface and the Kookaburra balls doing more than in years gone by, it might make sense to bowl a touch fuller.

Australia can look at their own – slightly depleted – battery of fast bowlers and point out they have all those capabilities as well.

But it is new territory for England to arrive with a group capable of matching – or even outdoing – the hosts for velocity. And it has been years in the planning.

All roads lead to the Ashes and, having picked up the pace along the way, England have six weeks to reach their desired destination before a new journey begins.