Road to the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia

[Gnske]

It is a funny old game though. England were probably favourites until Australia discovered Handscomb and Renshaw, which stabilised their batting, and then had a decent fist of it in India. Remember Gatting's men in 1986-7?

As if England would stand a better chance with an Australia starring Adam "Statistically and objectively better than Tendulkar" Voges as the opposition.

 

[Starfighter]

It is a funny old game though. England were probably favourites until Australia discovered Handscomb and Renshaw, which stabilised their batting, and then had a decent fist of it in India. Remember Gatting's men in 1986-7?

Were they favourites? We won a whitewash based on Brad Haddin's lower order rescues, so it's not like we need all the batting.

Not sure where you're going about the 86/87 parallel. Even with the quartet injured I think we could rustle up an attack better than one with Chris Matthews.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Were they favourites? We won a whitewash based on Brad Haddin's lower order rescues, so it's not like we need all the batting.

Not sure where you're going about the 86/87 parallel. Even with the quartet injured I think we could rustle up an attack better than one with Chris Matthews.

England before their Indian series were (considered) in better shape than Australia when they were struggling against South Africa at home. Australia turned it around with Handscomb and Renshaw - you might also mention the rehabilitation of Lyon. England are still dragging the same old problems, flaky batting order, suspect spin, from that Indian series.

The only major weakness I see in Australia now is their wicketkeeper.

 

[Adders]

I think if CA had any decency they'd allow us to postpone these Ashes until such time as we get this mess with Stokes cleared up and find 3 batsmen worthy of the name.

 

[Starfighter]

We don't have decades.

 

[Groundking]

England before their Indian series were (considered) in better shape than Australia when they were struggling against South Africa at home. Australia turned it around with Handscomb and Renshaw - you might also mention the rehabilitation of Lyon. England are still dragging the same old problems, flaky batting order, suspect spin, from that Indian series.

The only major weakness I see in Australia now is their wicketkeeper.

This kind of thinking is such nonsense, Renshaw is averaging in the mid 30's and both are still extremely early into their careers, and just look at Ballance, after the same number of innings he had scored 1060 runs @ 62.35, compared to Handscomb's 743 @ 53.07, also the batting is still massively suspect in English and subcontinent conditions, so to say that their only major weakness if their keeper is rubbish. They still have 2 ultimately unproven bats in the team and a bat who's only good at home and is still early in his career. Both teams are still massively reliant on their 2 big start batsmen.

Now don't get me wrong I still expect the Aussies to post good scores with the bat on the roads they produce nowadays, oh and I'm not even expecting them to steam roll us like last time as all their bowlers a step down from the godlyness that was Johnson in 13/14, let alone Harris, and the only ones that can even manage to stay fit for long are Starc who bowls too short and Hazlewood who is good but can't really shoulder the whole attack on his own. The Brain is very good though and will help a lot.

Having said all this I still expect a 5-0 thumping, but trying to pretend there's only 1 big question mark is wrong, they still have problems.And god for bid if they fail to produce roads this summer the Aussies could find it very hard to produce good scores.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Think it is clear that Australia have a superior side for Australian conditions and England do for English conditions. Expect Aussies to win this series easily and England to win the urn back next time over here. The world of pain in the winter will be hard. May work more shifts just to avoid it.

 

[stephen]

But will you have a better side for the return trip? Who knows how long Anderson will last. Fast bowlers can fall off a cliff fast once they hit a certain age. You would hope that TRJ would be able to step up permanently by the time Anderson is gone but even then your batting stocks are woeful outside Cook and the all rounders. Will that weakness be plugged in 2 years? Who knows.

Australia's team should be mostly the same at that point, barring a terrible run by Renshaw or Handscomb. Most of our batters will be at prime age. That's not to say we'll win or anything only that I don't think we can safely look that far ahead.

Heck, it's tough to entirely wrote off England even sans Stokes. Australia's batting is still too unproven and all it takes is a run of poor form by Smith and a couple of injuries and bam, England win 3-2.

 

[Black_Warrior]

This is a usual thing in the recent past where people write off Australia's batting before their home season because their away defeats are fresh in their minds but other than South Africa, no other bowling attack has managed to stop them at home.

The 2015 series was supposed to be New Zealand's best chance of winning in Australia with Boult and Southee in full force against an untested Australian batting line up and we had Burns, Khawaja and Voges blasting them away.

Yes Renshaw might be averaging 36 but 6 out of his 10 tests are in Asia. Averages 48 at home

Handscombe is solid and averages 59 at home.

Khawaja is a beast at home

And this is without even mentioning Warner and Smith who get between 2-3 hundreds every home summer.

This is going to be a drubbing. If Stokes is out, then 0-5 is on the cards.

 

[Burgey]

I reckon England will troll so hard with their lower order. Can see them being 5/150 odd and posting 400 quite a few times.

 

[vcs]

Australia kept doing this in the 2013-14 series.

 

[mr_mister]

So funny that Maxwell might be out of the ODI team but in the test team

 

[TheJediBrah]

So funny that Maxwell might be out of the ODI team but in the test team

He's simply not smart enough to play 2 formats at the same time

 

[Black_Warrior]

I reckon England will troll so hard with their lower order. Can see them being 5/150 odd and posting 400 quite a few times.

That is very likely. The main contest will be between Australia's pace attack vs Stokes, Ali, Bairstow. Should be a top contest.

 

[mr_mister]

Stokes ain't gonna be there

 

[wpdavid]

I reckon England will troll so hard with their lower order. Can see them being 5/150 odd and posting 400 quite a few times.

5/150 would be a champagne moment for our batting lineup this winter.

5/50 will happen more often,I reckon, unless Cook rediscovers his 2010/11 form.

 

[Black_Warrior]

unless Cook rediscovers his 2010/11 form

Highly unlikely. He hasn't been that player for years now and unlikely that he will regain that purple patch again. Cook's captaincy dominating most discussions about him and the fact that England don't have openers have meant that Cook pre 2013 and post 2013 has never really been properly scrutinized.

He has continued to score enough runs to justify his place but the Cook of 2010-11 and India 2012 series, the guy who at one point had a realistic shot at going past Tendulkar's tally is long gone.

 

[stephen]

Honestly whether England is 5/50 or 5/150 depends more on whether our attack is Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins or Bird, Behrendorf, Sayers.

 

[Black_Warrior]

It's going to be Starc, Hazelwood and Cummins/Bird

 

[vcs]

I'm starting to get the feeling that the Full-Strength Aussie Pace Attack (TM) might be getting a bit overrated around here.