No, because the larger you make the if, the more you're highlighting the desperation of your point when the top order is Crawley, Duckett and Pope.
Reality is starting to set in now for some England supporters as the weather over there grows what passes for warmer in the Dreary Isles. They've had to actually have a look at the squads now and are realizing the England outfit largely doesn't belong on the same park as the Australian side. Root (despite having questions to answer) and Stokes (despite being a recidivist thug who should be watching from a 6x8 foot cell in Pentonville Road Gaol) are very good players. Robinson has the makings of one, while Broad and Anderson are good in their own conditions but won't half last the series - one of them is already in doubt. The rest are hack sloggers and pretenders. They have no place in test cricket.
Player for player, Aus simply has the better batsmen and better bowlers by a large margin. As I've been saying for months, the series is done as a contest. It's over. Stick a fork in it.
There's no doubt that man for man, the Aussies have the better players.
For most of my cricket watching life, this has been the case but we’ve won plenty of series at home in particular. Cricket and sport in general doesn't always go to form, it doesn't work like that.
If it did, we wouldn't have won the Ashes in 81, in 05 etc etc. We certainly wouldn't have beaten the Aussies down under with Gatting and Strauss at the helm.
Sport and cricket doesn't always go to form, the best team on paper doesn't always win, that's why we all love it - its unpredictable at times. Players under and over perform in ways which before the series, you couldn't imagine happening.
Home advantage is massive in test cricket and we will have it this summer. We've shown in the recent past that despite the difference on paper between the sides, we can match and beat you at home. As you know you've not won a series in England since 2001.
Why is that when for the vast majority of those series, you've had the better side on paper.
Now I'm not saying we'll beat you but for all your bravado and bluster, you know that we can trouble you this summer.
You can deny it all you like and go through the teams man for man but when the heat is on this summer, none of us know what's going to happen - that's the beauty of sport and that's why we'll all be glued to our TVs this summer.