4: Ashes Cricket Strategy Shifts to Batting Power GUEST NAME: Jeremy Zachis The conversation covers a major shift in Australia's Ashes cricket strategy, moving from prioritizing technical bowlers to focusing on strong batters. England was already going for m
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 12 October 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
Ashes Cricket Strategy Shifts to Batting Power
The conversation covers a major shift in Australia's Ashes cricket strategy, moving from prioritizing technical bowlers to focusing on strong batters. England was already going for muscle and hitters. Selectors are watching Sheffield Shield Games for batsmen, possibly due to captain Pat Cummins' injury and other bowlers showing signs of tiredness. This means the Ashes could feature two very strong batting teams.
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| 0:00.0 | Building a coffee business? |
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| 0:24.5 | where it's coming autumn. And Jeremy Zakis, my mate, is in New South Wales, where it's |
| 0:30.2 | coming spring. And that means we look forward to ashes. The contest that begins in |
| 0:36.5 | November in Perth and then four other Australian |
| 0:39.2 | cities. When last Jeremy and I spoke, the word was out that the England team was going |
| 0:45.2 | for muscle. In other words, nothing but Aaron Judges. Aaron Judge, Aaron, Judge, Aaron, Judge, |
| 0:50.0 | Aaron, Aaron, Judge. Now, in baseball, that would not be a balanced team, although Judge is a super athlete. You really don't want him playing shortstop. Okay. But in cricket, I'm learning, you can take the whole team and turn it into nothing but muscle men who hit and hit and hit and run up the score. |
| 1:13.3 | What does that mean for the other team? I thought it meant you go for bowlers because in |
| 1:18.1 | baseball, especially in championship series, the opinion in general over, I've been watching |
| 1:24.9 | baseball since I was 16 years old, maybe younger. |
| 1:28.8 | The opinion is pitching always wins series. Pitching, pitching, pitching. |
| 1:34.4 | Not the hitters, the pitching. However, Jeremy, when last we spoke, Australia was going for bowlers, |
| 1:42.5 | which I think is the same as pitchers. And it was going for bowlers who which I think is the same as pitchers. |
| 1:44.9 | And it was going for bowlers who can spin and also can throw the fastball. |
| 1:49.0 | Has anything changed? |
| 1:51.1 | It has changed, John. |
| 1:52.8 | It has changed quite dramatically because we've gone from talking purely about how the bowling |
| 1:57.8 | lineup is going to effectively save the Aussie team and beat the ponds |
| 2:01.4 | as they come down here for the Ashes this summer to talking nothing more than about |
| 2:06.2 | batters. |
| 2:07.0 | We're now looking at trying to build up an Australian team that is full of batters. |
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