England need to start well, need luck: Brearley

With just two days left for the Ashes to begin, former England captain Mike Brearley said England cricket "is a bit on a high after the series against New Zealand and the one-day matches (that England won 3-2) as well".

Speaking on The Lord's Podcast, answering queries posted on Twitter, the 73-year-old Brearley, who is famous for winning the 1981 Ashes in England 3-1, said, "England need to start off well and need a bit of luck. One should not underestimate luck in all forms of life."

To a question from dna about Alastair Cook's and Michael Clarke's styles of captaincy, Brearley, the author of 'The Art Of Captaincy', said: "Surprisingly, I don't have a very clear image of Michael Clarke as a captain or as a person. He comes across well in talking about the game, he is upfront, straightforward, optimistic, friendly and intelligent about the game and brings all the qualities into the game plus the hardness that Australians can have to the Test match.

"On the other hand, Cook has many very good qualities as captain, very thoughtful, very decent man, fair minded with the players. He is very determined as we have seen by his stubborn determination to keep going under all that pressure last year and is an absolutely amazing player. He has got more centuries of his age than any other player."

However, Brearley said it was not easy captaining in the modern era. "It is more difficult for captains these days because they don't get any experience of captaining anywhere else except in Tests, which is true for Cook. Cook does not strike to me as a person who has a natural flair as captain. He has got better and can get much better still," he said.

Brearley, who went on to become a psychoanalyst after his playing days besides a journalist, said that Australia have a better bowling line-up going into the Ashes. "Australia have got better bowling. England probably have one frontline swing bowler, the best in the world when the ball swings, in Jimmy Anderson. We don't have quite the firepower and class. When the pitch is two days old, the sun comes out, the pitch is brown, Anderson looks more like a containing bowler than a wicket-taking bowler. (Newcomer) Mark Wood has a bit of something. He bowls at a good pace, got a good attitude, runs in directly, puts the batsman under pressure. I like the look of him. Anderson is one of those bowlers who has to get it right. He can also bowl modestly, his action is not a classical one, there is a small margin for error."

Talking about the Aussie bowlers, Brearley said, "Mitchell Starc has a better action, he is taller, swings the ball with pace. Peter Siddle is a very reliable bowler, a workaholic who can bowl all day. Another key department is spin. (Nathan) Lyon is a good bowler. I like watching him bowl. He bowled very well to Kevin Pietersen in the last series. With seven left-handed batsmen in the England squad, Lyon will look forward to this series."

Asked if the Australians will look to attack off-spinner Moeen Ali, who picked up a lot of wickets against India last year, Brearley said: "The Indians did it too. Look at what he did to the Indians last year. He was straight into the Test team. What is more, England relied on him to take wickets. Last year, he was one of the four bowlers. The wickets were shared around. The responsibility weighed heavily on him in the West Indies when he was not fully fit."

Brearley added that he liked the look of leg-spinner Adil Rashid. He rated former Australian pacer Dennis Lillee as the best Ashes bowler of his time. "He was a great bowler, he was fast, he swung the ball, he was accurate, he was aggressive and never gave up," Brearley said.

He also said he would love to have captained Shane Warne. "I would not mind having Garry Sobers in my side, and Viv Richards too. Dennis Lillee, Michael Holding, Ian Botham in his early days when I was lucky enough to have him in the team I was captain. And, I would love to play with Shane Warne. Leg-spin is an art, so difficult, it increases the dimensions of the game. Richards would put fear in the opposition bowlers from time to time. Where would you bowl at him? And the way he carried himself, he was like, this was his stage. Shane Warne was like that. They love it, they thrive on it and had terrific skills. Skill is the most important thing but on top of that, they had that tremendous presence."