Jim Maxwell is baffled by England's team selection

EXCLUSIVE: Australia can play better… I don’t think England can! Legendary BBC commentator JIM MAXWELL is baffled by home side’s team selection

• Maxell called Pat Cummins’ winning runs during a trilling first Test at Edgbaston
• He was critical of England picking Jonny Bairstow as wicketkeeper for the series
• Ben Duckett isn’t good enough to open either, according to the Australian

Jim Maxwell has commentated on 331 Tests in a career spanning 50 years. But even he was in wonder at what he witnessed at Edgbaston.

‘Close to the pick of the lot,’ replies the legendary Australian when asked where last week’s first Test ranks among the best Ashes matches he has worked on. ‘It is as good a game of cricket as I’ve seen in some time.’

Maxwell was the man who called Pat Cummins’ winning runs for Test Match Special, describing Australia’s dramatic two-wicket victory on air as an ‘Ashes match for the ages’. 

‘I was the only Australian in the box at that time, so it must have been galling for the rest of them when it looked like they had the game covered at eight for 227,’ smiles the 72-year-old. 

For Maxwell, the match also evoked memories of another Ashes classic at Edgbaston 18 years earlier, when he again commentated on the final moments for TMS as Steve Harmison took the wicket of Michael Kasprowicz in England’s famous two-run win.

Legendary BBC commentator Jim Maxwell (right) has said that Australia can pay better than they did in the first Test at Edgbaston… but England can’t

He queried the selection of wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, saying he is ‘a bit overweight’ and ‘not a wicketkeeper’

Australia have the chance to go 2-0 up at Lord’s after winning the World Test Championship earlier this month

The similarities between the two Tests have raised hopes that this summer’s series could end up being a thriller just like that one in 2005. Maxwell, however, is not so sure.

‘As a confident follower of the Australian side, I’m thinking they can probably improve on that performance and I’m not sure England can,’ he admits ahead of the start of Wednesday’s second Test at Lord’s. ‘It doesn’t help if you don’t pick your best team.’

Maxwell is referring to the selection of England’s wicketkeeper, with Jonny Bairstow having been brought back into the side and given the gloves in place of Ben Foakes. The Yorkshireman, who did not play over the winter after breaking his leg last October, hit 78 in the first innings at Edgbaston but missed some crucial chances behind the stumps.

‘They keep picking a bloke who is not a wicketkeeper, in my opinion,’ says Maxwell. ‘You can’t have a bloke who is a bit overweight, been out of nick because of his injury, doing the job of a Foakes.

‘Foakes would be the one — pick him and then work out the rest of your team. They’ve got to get Foakes back in the team because he is their best wicketkeeper, clearly. When you’re playing in conditions where you are going to get a few more nicks, you need a bloke who can turn a half chance into a wicket.

‘England have got a history of some very good keepers but also of playing Jos Buttler as a Test wicketkeeper, and this bloke, and Jim Parks years ago. They are a bit stubborn, the Poms, I’m afraid, and it might cost them at Lord’s if they don’t lift their game collectively.’

Maxwell also believes England need to ‘shuffle their batting’, questioning the place of opener Ben Duckett, who scored 12 and 19 in the first Test. ‘I think Duckett against this bowling as an opening batsman is very fragile,’ he says.

‘No doubt they have played exhilarating cricket, but it’s a bit different when you play against this bowling attack.’

Maxwell advocated for a recall for Ben Foakes, England’s best wicketkeeper, who was dropped for the series

He also said playing opener Ben Duckett against Australia’s impressive attack is ‘fragile’

Certainly, the Ashes and Test cricket still means an awful lot to Maxwell, 50 years after he joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a trainee and 40 years after he first worked for TMS at the 1983 World Cup in England.

‘I asked the late Arthur Morris one day, “What do you think of this new form of the game, T20?”,’ Maxwell recalls. ‘He said, “It’s a bit like All-Bran, it just goes straight through you!” That was a very good line.’

Maxwell is full of those himself on the radio, a format which, like Test cricket, continues to thrive in this country against the odds. Almost six million people requested to listen to TMS via the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sounds app during the first Test. ‘There is something unique and quite intimate about cricket on the radio,’ says Maxwell, a master of the medium.

The 72-year-old said ‘there is something unique and quite intimate about cricket on the radio’

Even the stroke he suffered while working on the Rio Olympics in 2016 could not keep Maxwell away from the microphone for long. ‘My mobility is the problem, but I’m lucky I’ve still got my voice,’ he says. ‘You always think, if you have a bad moment, “Well, it could have been worse. I could have been dead”.’

On the basis of this conversation, there seems plenty of life left in Maxwell. So will we hear him on our airwaves the next time Australia visit England, in 2027?

‘If I’m still asked, and I’m still here, maybe. If it’s like it’s been last week at Edgbaston, you wouldn’t want to miss it, would you?’

Test Match Special is providing ball-by-ball commentary from each day of both the men’s and women’s Ashes on 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds. Daily TV highlights are available on BBC Two and iPlayer at 7pm. The BBC Sport website and app is home to live text commentary, special features and in-play clips. 

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