The greatest rivalry in test cricket is set to resume on August 1 when Australia begin their quest to regain ‘The Ashes’ on England soil after an 18 year hiatus. England are the betting favourites with odds of 1.97 and Australia go in as the underdogs with odds of 2.50.
England who won the 2019 ICC World Cup recently, played a one-off test against Ireland last week to get themselves ready for 5 day cricket. Ireland gave England a scare after bowling them out for just 85 in the first innings and had a great chance of winning the game.
However, England showed great fighting spirit and ended up winning the test by 143 runs to get themselves in the right frame of mind for The Ashes.
The top order looks a lot better now for Australia with the return of David Warner and former captain Steven Smith. Cameron Bancroft will most likely partner with Warner at the top, followed by the experienced U Khawaja at 3 and then Smith at 4. If England can make early inroads into the top order, it will expose an inexperienced middle order.
Australia does not have a settled middle order and will have to experiment with the likes of Travis Head, Matthew Wade who is playing as a batsman, Mitchell Marsh and Marnus Labuschagne. If the middle order does not fire, it will put Australia under a lot of pressure in the 5 match series.
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While Australia go in with concerns over the batting, there are no such concerns when it comes to their bowling department. They have an excellent line up of fast bowlers who will be competing with each other throughout the series. M Starc, J Hazelwood and P Cummins have been the three quicks that have terrorised opposition batsmen in the last 12 months.
However, J Pattinson makes his return to the test squad after a long layoff from injury. Pattinson has been in excellent bowling form, taking wickets and bowling really fast. There is talk that he will play the first test and either M Starc or J Hazelwood will make way for him. England will have to cope with a battery of pace throughout the series and their only respite will be facing the wiley off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
Australia will want to win the first test and put extra pressure on England to defend The Ashes at home!
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