Topic: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] - page 810. (Read 169049 times)

Australia is known for rotating their players. So I guess it is possible that Bancroft may get an opportunity. But if they are looking towards the future, then there are younger players who deserve that spot. And as you mentioned, Khawaja can open with Warner as well. But Warner was in pathetic form during the last Ashes, and I am not sure whether Australia can count on him. His poor form was neutralized to an extent by Smith and Labuschagne, but this time it needs to be seen how the things work out for them. 

Joe is a great player no doubt. But if England wants to win all the players need to contribute to the scoreboard because with only Joe Root scoring and the others failing to the task doesn't have the cause of England. From the new players, I don't know what to expect but I hope they can come to the rescue when their team needs them.

And Australia needs to play really well if they want to beat England. I think Warner and Smith can get going then it will be really a big problem for England and Pat  Cummins needs to take a big responsibility off the bowling department. Because he needs to get Joe Root out as he has done this before and Joe Root seems to be a little prone to be off-balance when deliveries are coming in.

I think you and S A KHAIR mixing T-20 and Test Format form.

If you leave Joe Root out from the discussion then not a single English batsmen, i mean literally you can't find single batsmen who can anchor the inning or make a ton for the English team. That's their story since 1-2 years. Yeah 1-2 individual players might score odd hundred here n there but that's about it.

I had very high hopes from Buttler, Bairstow but they completely failed to impress anyone in Red ball cricket despite playing 50+ tests match. Buttler is about to retire from Test cricket anyway.

English Opening prospect Rory Burn, Sibley and Haseeb Hameed are top notch performer in County circuit but their international average is about 33-ish. Hameed is new guy but you don't expect these sort of averages from your openers.

One new middle order batter is Daniel Lawrence, although his numbers doesn't make good case for him but he's considered a most complete batsman in current English squad after Joe Root. All his runs comes when odds were against the batsmen. I really hope he gets the long rope along with Ollie Pope because they are future of English Team.

Bancroft chances are slim due to his recent form. They could also try Khawaja at opening slot, he could dig at one end and Warner could do his job from the other end, but yeah Khawaja is more suitable for middle order.

I too feel that England have a far more stable squad I’m comparison to Australia, but at the end of the day Australia will only need one or two strong player’s to step up and change the game’s momentum for them eg Smith.

Also lot of attention seems to be on Stokes, but I feel that he’ll handle it well and maybe he’ll be the key player who’ll help England beat Australia.

Khawaja will suit more in the middle order, as the top-4 is sort of permanent (Warner, Harris/Bancroft, Smith, Labuschagne). The options they have right now are mostly useless. Khawaja is someone who can build a big partnership with either Labuschagne or Smith. Cameroon Green is another exciting prospect for Australia. He was disappointing against India (especially with the ball), but the management needs to provide more chances to these young players rather than sticking with useless oldies such as Head, Paine and Wade.

I am so excited about the ashes series and I think this time England has some advantages over Australia because almost all of the England players are in form and they have some world-class players who can turn the match on its head by themselves especially ben strokes who are returning to the England squad. I think Australia might have some serious problems this time.

Aussie camp already dreaming about 5-0. They are not wrong either, we just have to look at English last 3 tours when visiting Aussie's shore. They were humiliated every time and whitewashed by Aussie side.

Yes, Usman Khawaja not in the team but not because of his. Reason is he's no3 -no4 batsman and these spots are occupied by Marnus and Smith. But you never know if selectors might pick Usman for No 5 spot because so far he's their top run scorer in recent Sheffield season.

Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith are in good form but Usman Khawaja is not even in the team but Australia has some young talents especially Cameron Green and they are yet to announce the team for the Ashes, England already announced their squad and Ben Stokes is returning after a gap and they have a really strong team and hopefully it will be a good series.

Currently, both teams facing some big dilemma with their batting, but Australian are much better with some good and quality batsmen and home advantage is also having big factor for them England is really crap in batting because at home they some better in Australia it has never been easy for them and their all batting line up just Root is not enough for having good performance in all series we already watch in series against INDIA Stokes is out of cricket for some time which is also big factor but biggest issue is their best domestic cricket system is not giving them any quality batsman in long time now it's time for think about this and have some better ideas about improving quality.

^^ Don't look at Smith's limited overs form much. He scored fair amount of runs against us in the last tour and scored shit load amount of runs in the last Ashes series. He is capable of switching into his god-mode in the test cricket out of nowhere. Warner's confidence looks bad but he's also champion batsman at home when playing tests. Apart from Marnus, other players like Travis head, Green and more or less outcast member (because of Smith-Marnus's form) Usman Khawaja are in excellent form.

Almost forgot about Marnus Labuschagne. With Warner and Smith being out of form, he needs to step up if Australia wants to prevent a complete whitewash by England. And from what I can see, he is in good form for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield competition. And a few months back, he performed in an exceptional manner for Glamorgan as well. During the last Ashes series, Smith and Marnus scored the vast majority of the runs for Australia. This time the poor form of Smith should be a concern for them.

Compared to 2013/14 Ashes where Australia won 5/0, this time England time is strong enough to give aussies a tough time. I do agree that Aussies are a little bit weak when compared with mighty England. It is also confirmed that Ben will be there in Ashes. But as far as betting odds are concerned they are still favouring Australia.  https://bettingsite.com.au/cricket/ashes/#odds

Have to agree with @TheGreatPython. English batting line up performed badly in the recent time, we have seen this in the last 2 Test series against kiwis and Indians. Couple of times they got knocked out under 60 overs when chasing and lost the game and odds were favoring the draw or to some extent their win when game started at the 5th day.

English bowlers are excellent but no one can rule out Aussie batters. Smith-Marnus duo is almost invincible. Other batters are also doing well in the current Sheffield season, couple of batters are scoring double ton for fun and becoming meme locally. Not counting Warner yet because of his form but he's destructive opener when playing in Australia, he's called home-track bully for a reason.

The previous Ashes ended in a draw, and the same gives way for more expectation on the 2021-2022 series. The past team can't be compared with the present team. Those are legendary players who kept the Australia team as if like a strong palace which can't be destroyed that easy. Things changed little by little, and recently they regained good form. Something in between happened and once again the team went down. As in the above quote England looks complete, but Australia hasn't got perfect squad. Often players gets swapped which itself not a good sign of being strong.

Even with the home advantage, I would say that England are slightly ahead at this point. Australian players (especially Steve Smith) have performed poorly in 2020-21. The bowlers have performed even worse. They used to be dependent on Mitchell Starc, but he has been out of form for ages. Hazlewood is economical, but not lethal. The other bowlers such as Richardson and Pattinson doesn't have enough experience to take on the England batsmen. For England, Joe Root is in top form. The bowlers are also in good shape, especially Anderson, Woakes, Robinson and Broad.

Right now, Australia is clearly hot favorite for win of The Ashes even Stokes is coming in team because their biggest issue is batting which is not near a quality batting just Root can't do anything for team because he is also human. Ben Stokes is also good batsman but need sometime for his settling and having better result.

At home playing against Australia is never easy for any team recently just India is team which able to defeat them back to back series and doing this for England with these batsmen not possible bowlers are some better in presence of Anderson and Broad but still batting is really matter of concern for them.

Well i would say australia are favorites because the ashes is going to happen in australia which is a huge advantage and england batting line up is not at his best right now and their swing bowlers may also struggle in australian conditions. YES it would surely me an exciting series but i would say australia are the favorites this time.

It doesn't matter if Australia plays good or bad in a certain match for the tournament they are always really serious about the ashes series. If you see the Australians play the ashes you will know that it means a lot to them. I personally love to see ashes because for me this is the biggest rivalry after probably India vs Pakistan. But if we talk about only test matches, ashes is by far the biggest rivalry ever. I have always supported Australia in ashes because they always seemed to have a flair about them and their play style. And probably another reason was Australia have always had some superstars like Glenn McGrath and Share Warne and Ponting etc. But this time I think  England is going to win the ashes series regardless of their injury problems. Because England seems to be a complete team to me right now.

Which team is having the upper hand for the Ashes series? I was thinking that it would be a cakewalk for England, but given the fact that some of their players are injured, they may not be able to field their best side. And at the same time, some of the Australian players, who were not in great form earlier (Warner, Cummins.etc) seems to have recovered by now. It is going to be an evenly contested series between two of the big 3 teams, and the Australian players are always at their best during the Ashes.

There is no doubt that Stokes is quality player and game changer for England because he has already done some very good things for England in past but right now biggest issue is he is facing some multi problems one is physical injury and second one is mentally just because of this he was away from game so now just wait and watch how is he going to fix these because already out of game for long time is not issue but having burnout in game is also the biggest issue as we in past with few players they try to recover but fail like we have Carl Hooper from West Indies he was big player but sadly never able to play like he wants to do.