Lol England recently got thrashed in 2 back to back series by Kiwis and Indians at their own backyard (Eng vs Ind series is not finished but India is leading 2-1, should have been 3-1 but rain saved the England in the first test). Not to mention Poms were humiliated in the India couple of months back.
In white ball cricket they do have ridiculous team, they can even field 2 different teams in limited overs but they seems doomed as far as test cricket is concern. Poor Root is doing all heavy lifting for them.
Well... I have to agree. England performs poorly in test cricket when compared to the limited overs variety. On the other hand, Australia is one level ahead, when it comes to the longer format. Their players always perform the best in test, and especially so during Ashes. While I feel that England is having the upper hand due to the recent form, they will be digging their own grave in case they ignore the challenge. And as you said, they are a bit overdependent on Joe Root, similar to the case when Australia depended on Smith during the previous series.
Only benefit England could claim over Australia is that they have international match practice. Australia played their last series against India, on the other hand England has played almost 4 test series. Both team are vulnerable but Australia looks more balanced team to me.
England's new opener Haseeb is good, more like Pujara so i'm expecting few good knocks from him. Stokes addition might help their middle order along with Root.
Burns, Malan, Buttler are miss or hit for their team, in last 1-2 years they looked even worst batters to me. Bad news for Root if he comes to bat at 20/2 every time, that's a English scorecard since 3-4 years.
Btw There is no Jofra and they are resting Jimmy for the first test. English bowlers are good.
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For Australia Smith-Marnus duo is key but if by any chance Warner gets into the form then they are set to pile up loads of runs.
Based on Sheffield performance Oz middle order doesn't look that bad when comparing to England.
For bowling point of view i hope they rotate their fast bowlers. Playing 5 back to back test is very hard for the fast bowlers, they might ran out juice till they reach 4th-5th match, we have witnessed this from the Australian bowlers when they were up against Indians.
Note : Guys would be better if we move this discussion into test thread.
