Australia wins women’s and mens Test matches within one minute of each other, showing why it’s the Brazil of cricket;

At the MCG, Alyssa Healy’s side rode on the coattails of magnificent performances by Alana King and Annabel Sutherland, who alongside Beth Mooney wrote their names onto the ground’s honour board for Test matches.

To watch King run rings around a ponderous and error-riddled England was to rejoice in leg spin bowling, one of the skills that Australian cricket has played a huge role in keeping alive over the years.

Not only through Shane Warne, but via the likes of Richie Benaud, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O’Reilly and Arthur Mailey. All those wrist spinners would have been proud to bowl the ripping delivery that King fizzed past Sophia Dunkley to hit the top of the off stump.

King was central to a 16-0 multi-format crunching of England, demonstrating why Lisa Sthalekar called her “the hottest property” in the women’s game. Australia briefly misstepped by leaving King out of its Twenty20 World Cup side last year, arguably costing them a chance to win the tournament. But that pain was quickly channelled into a right royal hammering of England.

In Galle, meanwhile, Australia dismantled Sri Lanka so comprehensively that it was easy to fall into the trap of thinking this was a meaningless or routine result.

But that would be to disregard too many years of history here, where Sri Lanka have tripped up many a nation. In 2024, they humbled New Zealand a week or so before the Black Caps upset India in India. And Sri Lanka contended for the WTC final for far longer than England did.

Past members of the great Australian sides of the 1990s and early 2000s have occasionally confided that they would have liked to play in the current setup because Cummins, deputy Steve Smith and head coach Andrew McDonald have fostered an environment that is high in skill and poise but low on anger and tension.

That approach is well suited to overseas tours, and scoffing from other countries about drawn series, in England in particular, tends to avoid the overall picture.

Since the start of Cummins’ captaincy in 2021, Australia have won 24 Test matches and lost just seven. England (22 wins, 17 losses) and India (17 wins, 13 losses) have inferior winning ratios in that time not only to Australia, but also to South Africa (16 wins and nine defeats) despite the Proteas’ much publicised struggles to keep their Test program alive.

Given the disparity in resources and playing talent between England, India and South Africa, that is a rather embarrassing state of affairs. So too, the fact that the inaugural winners of the WTC were New Zealand.

England’s captain Ben Stokes has been a leading critic of the WTC, calling it “weird” and “utterly confusing” while at the same time wanting to be characterised as a saviour of Test cricket via the “Bazball” brand of play.

Stokes’ arguments don’t stand up next to the facts of the past few years, that have seen more competitiveness in Test cricket, more surprise results and more contenders for the global trophy.

Shamar Joseph in Brisbane, Pathum Nissanka at the Oval, and Mitchell Santner in India all made their marks on the red ball game.

Loading

The world tuned in on South Africa’s chase for a fourth innings target against Pakistan at Centurion late last year in the knowledge that victory would lead to qualification among as many as five contending teams. Before 2019, Test cricket had never seen anything even remotely like this.

But Stokes’ criticism has now reached a level of cricket’s hierarchy where the WTC may well be recast into something more amenable to England’s wishes. When Thompson says “competitive” and “fair”, he means more competitive and fair for Stokes and McCullum, not for South Africa, Sri Lanka or New Zealand.

Winning matches and series will still be the key to success, though. On that level, with two Test victories within 60 seconds of each other, Australia stands supreme.