Bring on the Ashes!

The countdown is over. The Ashes are here. After months - even years of build-up and hype the 10 test consecutive Ashes series is upon us.

England are undoubtedly coming into the series as favourites however there is some resurgence in confidence of the Australians on the back of Darren Lehmann replacing Mickey Arthur as coach. England's major strength over Australia will lie in their batting. Cook, Trott, Pietersen and Bell will form a formidable batting line-up for the home side and the Australian bowlers will have their work cut out. England also have an advantage in the spin bowling department with premier spinner Graeme Swann. Australia have Nathan Lyon, although is steady, will not strike fear into the England batsmen. (Edit - Just as I'm typing this, word is coming through that Ashton Agar is going to make his debut in the first test, ahead of Nathan Lyon. Wow, massive call there from the new coach.) One element that Australia will be hoping to have the edge on England will be in the fast bowling sector. With Siddle, Pattinson, Starc, Harris, Bird and Faulkner, Australia certainly have the firepower to be able to strike some fear into England. The fast bowling cartel will need to stay patient though as it will take a lot of work to remove England's batsmen. Their skills will be put to the test as well, as England will be led by Anderson who is an expert at swinging the ball.

After the recent update to the ICC Test Rankings, England have dropped to third behind India. This means that it will be the third and fourth placed sides doing battle for the Ashes. An England win will push them back up to no.2 behind South Africa, while a cleansweep or close to it will send Australia tumbling down to no.5 or even no.6. England's form has been generally pretty good of late with a 2-0 series win over New Zealand just a couple of months ago. However they did draw the series in New Zealand 0-0 at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile Australia have been through a horror few months with plenty of on-field disappointment and off-field drama. After losing a closely fought series to South Africa at home, a cleansweep of Sri Lanka was soon forgotten after a smashing in India 4-0. Although the conditions are different here in England, the English will be looking to take advantage of some possible dented confidence of the Australians.

I think Michael Clarke and James Anderson will be the keys for this series. Clarke is the obvious one for Australia as without him, their batting will suffer. He will need to stand up and produce a lot of runs for Australia to be competitive in this series. For Australia's sake I hope his back will not cause him too much trouble throughout the series. Anderson will prove decisive in knocking over Australia quickly. His swing will cause plenty of headaches for the Australian top order and if he is firing then it is hard to see Australia being able to combat him that well.

This series is the start of a 10 test match Ashes extravaganza. So the winner of this series will not necessarily hold the urn for long. However because of the short turn-around they will have great confidence heading into the "second leg" later this year. England have won the past two series 2-1 and 3-1 respectively. Although I think Australia will put up a huge fight I'm going to predict a 3-1 win to England.

Squads

England Ashes Squad (1^st Test)

Alistair Cook (c), Matt Prior (vc), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Graham Onions, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott

Australia Ashes Squad

Michael Clarke (c), Brad Haddin (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Ed Cowan, James Faulkner, Ryan Harris, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Chris Rogers, Peter Siddle, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson

 

Fixtures 

10th July - 14th July: 1st Test @ Trent Bridge, Nottingham 

18th July - 22nd July: 2nd Test @ Lord's, London

1st August - 5th August: 3rd Test @ Old Trafford, Manchester

9th August - 13th August: 4th Test @ Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street

21st August - 25th August: 5th Test @ Kennington Oval, London

*I will be aiming to post updates on a daily basis during the Ashes series