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Joe Root and Steve Smith are Ashes captains cut from the same cloth

Seldom if ever can two Ashes captains been so outwardly similar as Steve Smith and Joe Root - not at least since the Victorian era when captains of Australia and England wore waistcoats and moustaches, and both professed themselves to be loyal subjects of the British empire, whose ties they strengthened by playing cricket.

While Smith is 28 and Root 26, they share very boyish grins - though these have become fewer in the last week. The phoney war of words, however, reflects the vast amount of “media opportunities” and interviews by certain Australian players, rather than hostility on the part of the tourists. Root led the applause for the two young Australian batsmen whose centuries thwarted England in their final practice game in Townsville.

Both Smith and Root bat at No4, having discarded the notion of No3, although Smith is as idiosyncratic in style as Root is orthodox. Both average well above 50 in Tests and Smith is ranked as No1 by the ICC and Root at two. They both direct proceedings from second slip, and bowl some occasional spin. For both it is their first Ashes series in command.

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Australia's record at The Gabba
Australia's record at The Gabba

Their backgrounds are remarkably similar generally and specifically. Smith comes from Sydney, where Australian cricket began, Root from Yorkshire, where professional cricket took off in the 19th century: both grew up in their country’s cricketing epicentre, with all the habits of best practice ingrained. Specifically, Smith and Root were trained from a very early age by their fathers, with the aid of a cricket ground close to the family home.

Root was one day old when he first held a cricket bat, albeit made of cardboard, and was batting in the garden as soon as he could toddle against the bowling of his father, Matt, who played for Sheffield Collegiate. Smith’s father, Peter, went a stage further and learned how to bowl every type of right-arm delivery so Steve could practise of an evening, both in the family garden and at Casuarina Oval in Sydney. Smith was habituated to hit along the ground because of the flowerbeds, and because Sir Donald Bradman said you can’t get out if you hit along the ground.

Chart: Highest win percentage at venue
Chart: Highest win percentage at venue

Root was stretched by playing from the age of 10 amongst men for Sheffield Collegiate, inspired by the club member Michael Vaughan who captained England. Smith rose quickly through the sides at Sutherland and at 15 was opening their batting with Phil Jacques, who opened for Australia. Neither completed his secondary education because cricket was so obviously going to be their livelihood, and soon: both made their Test debuts aged 21.

A to Z of the Ashes
A to Z of the Ashes

Going into this series, Root as captain has won five and lost two of his seven Tests, while averaging 60 with the bat. Smith has won 13 and lost eight of his 26 Tests, averaging 69. If this is another respect in which Smith appears to be half a step ahead, largely because he is more senior, he has a distinct advantage in what is widely considered to be the decisive battle-ground of this series. His four main bowlers have taken 257 wickets in Tests in Australia at little more than 30 runs each. Root’s five main bowlers have naturally taken fewer wickets in Australia, 66, at an average nearing 40.

In these last hours before the Ashes, Root can realistically hope that Australia’s advantage in bowling - based on their superiority in pace if not statistics - may not take immediate effect. Given the forecast of heavy showers interspersed with sub-tropical sunshine, the greenish Gabba pitch may continue beyond the opening session to be “a deck”  of the kind beloved of English seamers, who excel in patient line and length: in which case the source of Australia’s unbeaten record in Brisbane for almost three decades could be turned into their weakness.

Steve Smith and Joe Root - Credit: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Steve Smith and Joe Root were both taught the game by their fathersCredit: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

To blunt Australia’s bowlers, nobody is better equipped than Root’s predecessor. If Alastair Cook can wind his clock back to 2010-11 and make three centuries in this series, he can be expected to take down one if not two of Australia’s seamers - and the reserves for Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are no better than England’s finest in Australian conditions, if their equal at all.

But however good Root may be at the form of poker that is a press conference, he cannot pretend that his hand is as strong as it was last summer. He was blessed then with three world-class allrounders. Of them, Ben Stokes is in England, for a while; Moeen Ali has yet to face a single ball of pace in a game on this tour; and Jonny Bairstow, who did not face any pace either in England’s last warm-up, finds himself at seven, charged with the task of protecting a tail which could go up in a puff of smoke, such is Starc’s expertise with the reverse-swinging yorker.

Australia's Steve Smith trains during a nets session at The Gabba, Brisbane - Credit: Jason O'Brien/PA
Steve Smith prepares for his fifth Ashes series as a player but his first as captainCredit: Jason O'Brien/PA

Psychologically, though, England for once in Brisbane are “good to go” as Australians say. Playing their last warm-up in the tropics, in Townsville, was highly beneficial: Brisbane's weather feels relatively cool in the mid to late 20s Centigrade. The last time England approached here from the north they sneaked a draw with the aid of rain, and a repeat of 20 years ago is not impossible. And if Smith holds the advantage in several particulars, Root has a head’s start in that England hold the Ashes, and therefore will retain the urn if they can force a 1-1 or 2-2 draw.