The oldest rivalry in cricket gets renewed on Friday when England and Australia begin the latest battle for The Ashes in what might just be the most eagerly anticipated Test series of all time between the two rival nations.
We are at a period in the series where the home team has been dominant but Australia might feel that after winning the World Test Championship last week they will never be better placed to break the away hoodoo. A confident England side will be out to show it isn’t going to be that easy.
Schedule
1st Test: 16-20 Jun at Edgbaston
2nd Test: 28 Jun – 2 Jul at Lord’s
3rd Test: 6-10 Jul at Headingley
4th Test: 19-23 Jul at Old Trafford
5th Test: 27-31 Jul at The Oval
England
The onus will be on England to win this series as the home side. We know exactly how England are going to play and the positive of that is no team has come up with a plan to beat it in the long-term and has allowed them to run up a sequence of 11 wins from 13 Test matches under the new regime. The negative is that it is the only way this England side are going to play and if Australia are the kryptonite to it then you would imagine it will leave the hosts very vulnerable.
You would imagine in home conditions that the England attack will be able to do the business, particularly with the attacking fields that Ben Stokes is going to set so the success or otherwise of this England side in this series will be whether the extravagance they are playing with when it comes to the bat in hand transfers to the amount of runs they have been scoring so far. If it doesn’t it could be a long six weeks.
Australia
If you need a confidence boost going into an Ashes series then Australia had a big one last week when they won the World Test Championship. Not only was that a huge confidence boost but it was the ideal preparation for what should be a tough five Test matches to come so you would have to say that as far as being prepared to win this series is concerned Australia certainly have that box ticked, which could be crucial.
You look at the Australia batting unit and there looks to be runs all over it but it has been a while since they have scored big regularly in England. They are not likely to encounter overcast conditions in this series, at least not in the early stages anyway, so that might help them. If they can keep their bowlers fit for five matches in a little over six weeks then the talent is certainly within Australia to win a series in England for the first time in 22 years.
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Head-to-head
These two nations have battled it out in 83 previous series with Australia still on top in them overall. They have won 40 series to the 34 that England have come out on top in. There have been nine drawn series as well, the latest of which came when these two sides last did battle on English shores in 2019 when Ben Stokes played that incredible innings at Headingley to contribute towards a 2-2 draw. England are unbeaten in series at home since 2001.
40 of those 83 series have been in England and the home side have won exactly half of them with five of them drawn including that previous series here. Australia have come out on top 15 times but there are a generation of Australian cricketers who haven’t won a series on English soil and the pressure is beginning to build as a result. As far as individual matches there have been 356 of them. England have 110 wins while Australia have come out on top in 150 of them. There have also been 96 draws.
Betting
I think most judges expect this series to be very competitive and to edge one way and then the other and I certainly don’t disagree with that. Whenever a series like that comes along you wouldn’t expect much to be given away in the series odds and that is very much the case. If you are betting on the series winner it might be worth waiting until a team goes behind and then backing them as this one looks like a series that gets settled at The Oval.
If there is a way to play this series then it might just be to back 3-2 both ways. England have proven that unless there is significant rain, and we are right in the heart of the English summer so that isn’t as likely as some times when this series gets played, we can pretty much forget about drawn games and with England likely to dominate, or enjoy themselves at Edgbaston and Headingley, and Australia probably better suited to Lord’s and having already won at The Oval two wins for each look very likely. I’m happy to play the 3-2 either way.
Tips
Back Australia to win 3-2 for a 1/10 stake at 7.50 with Betfred
Back England to win 3-2 for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Betfred
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