I'm so very conflicted. On one hand I am the 200 year end product of a chip-on-the-shoulder colonial culture that only slightly diverged away from the settler's culture, and must, has to show up England at any and all opportunity, WW1 lives rent free in my head as does bodyline series as a sort of psychic shock to the cultural ethos that no one ever recovered from. I cannot stand Mr Tory Ian Botham (Ian Chappell is right about him), never shuts up KP, the bloke that give himself the #racist on twitter, the fucking nickname 'bazball' and the fact it was a reinvention of the wheel by two Kiwis for use by the old Enemy. This is not okay, we are the team that brutalises with aggressive batting, we set the huge scores for teams to chase, this isn't the script. I really, really, really want Australia to smash this team back to the drawing board, 5-0 wash fuck off, a justification of 140 years of shitty, slow, methodical test cricket, take that you upstart pricks, our machismo Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, toxic bullshit blokeish masculinity overcoming the next obstacle and vindicating our moral superiority of bazball, fuck ya gentleman's sport and having fun this is a war. This is a leatherglove slap invitation to a duel the insult will not stand, how can I compartmentalise England clawing one back and getting one step closer to having more series wins than Australia and in a radically stylish manner?
One the other hand bazball is fucking great to watch and has created possibly one of the most hyped Ashes series ever, and if England win it may breathe life into test cricket if other nations adapt and adopt new styles and variations of bazball. Too steep a price to pay, if you ask me. Australia wins 3-1