• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Official - Road to Ashes 2023

Qlder

International Debutant
Cummins, starc and lyon should ideally play the WTC final, same with boland if hazlewood isn't fit + any warm up games.
There are no warm up games, straight into WTC Final then 5 Ashes games

Lol that Australia vs India in the WTC Final is considered the only "warm-up" game for the Ashes ?
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
What about rust where these haven't played a game in any format since at least March:

England
Nil

Australia
khawaja
Head
Carey
Inglis
Cummins
Starc
Boland
Lyon
Murphy
To be fair, Joe Root has only played one (brief) IPL knock in that time, so only escapes this list via technicality.
 

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
The Aussies will be better prepared than most away teams are because they'll have a proper competitive match against India.

Usually it's a couple if 15 a side knock abouts
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
Sick Bench - Ashes

England

Robinson- Ankle
Stone- Hamstring
Archer- entirely out- elbow
Anderson- Groin
Stokes- knee soreness- bowling restricted.

Aus

Hazlewood -side strain.

Aus advantage in this department. lol.
The biggest concern there is Robinson. Stone was a last resort, Archer already written off whilst the issues around Anderson don't seem very high. Scan results today on Robinson will be important.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
There are no warm up games, straight into WTC Final then 5 Ashes games

Lol that Australia vs India in the WTC Final is considered the only "warm-up" game for the Ashes ?
Which is why a proper WTC final would be a multiple match all conditions series kicking off at Lords, carbon footprint be damned.
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
What about rust where these haven't played a game in any format since at least March:

England
Nil

Australia
khawaja
Head
Carey
Inglis
Cummins
Starc
Boland
Lyon
Murphy
All the England blokes who are playing keep getting injured. Early season is a bastard of a time - you have to get your bowlers in particular some miles in their legs and when you do there's always a risk that coming off a break they'll tweak something.
 

Qlder

International Debutant
All the England blokes who are playing keep getting injured. Early season is a bastard of a time - you have to get your bowlers in particular some miles in their legs and when you do there's always a risk that coming off a break they'll tweak something.
But Aussie bowler line up of Cummins, Starc, Boland, Lyon will have zero miles in their legs come WTC final
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
All the England blokes who are playing keep getting injured. Early season is a bastard of a time - you have to get your bowlers in particular some miles in their legs and when you do there's always a risk that coming off a break they'll tweak something.
So does that mean Cummins breaks down in the First or Second Test?
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Global Moderator
The biggest concern there is Robinson. Stone was a last resort, Archer already written off whilst the issues around Anderson don't seem very high. Scan results today on Robinson will be important.
Agree with you on all of Robinson/Stone/Archer/Anderson. Stokes likely not being fit to bowl is a loss though, especially if we do get any flat pitches.
 

Qlder

International Debutant
So does that mean Cummins breaks down in the First or Second Test?
Nah, Cummins will have some global climate warming event or sponsorship clash rule him out before then. Smith will then captain and win the Ashes

Aren't you allowed some random/free coice predictions in the prediction thread ?
 
Last edited:

Qlder

International Debutant
It's glorious weather here at the moment and it's set to continue - we won't need the rain but you'd better start practicing your rain dance
First test is nearly 4 weeks away. How will the rain be in late June and all of July. I remember it was very rainy when I lived in Preston
 

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
First test is nearly 4 weeks away. How will the rain be in late June and all of July. I remember it was very rainy when I lived in Preston
It's always pissing down in Preston mate. ?

The forecast for the next couple of weeks is good - after that it's anyone's guess but theres no reason why the pitches this summer shouldn't be decent.
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
So does that mean Cummins breaks down in the First or Second Test?
Aus seems to basically have a policy these days of not putting the first choice test blokes into match situations until they have to. Even at home it's rare to see the likes of Cummins play many or even any Shield games ahead of the test summer. it seems a bit counter intuitive to me, but tbf when he was younger Cummins played a bit of early season stuff got injured and was essentially otherwise always out for about 7 years.

I think they essentially work them in the nets and build up their work load of X balls at 50%, y at 75% and Z at 100% and sort of build it up. The idea being I suppose if they aren't feeling it they can pull the pin on a session which you can't really do in a State game. It seems as though the counties have a bit more sway over there than the States do here. CA routinely just pulls blokes out of Shield/ domestic LO games and rests them in the build up to a test or LO international series even if they're fringe players and ultimately aren't picked for the Aus side - Sabba for example has missed a fair bit for NSW like that last couple of years.

Edit: it worked against them in India when Cummins bowled arguably his only bad spell ever in the first innings of the first test, but tbh he was ok after that before going home and there were some pretty extraordinary private circumstances involved there. Otherwise they seem not to miss a beat for the most part, which is a credit to the sports science guys I suppose. I'd always like to have them blow the cob webs out, personally.
 
Last edited:

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
Aus seems to basically have a policy these days of not putting the first choice test blokes into match situations until they have to. Even at home it's rare to see the likes of Cummins play many or even any Shield games ahead of the test summer. it seems a bit counter intuitive to me, but tbf when he was younger Cummins played a bit of early season stuff got injured and was essentially otherwise always out for about 7 years.

I think they essentially work them in the nets and build up their work load of X balls at 50%, y at 75% and Z at 100% and sort of build it up. The idea being I suppose if they aren't feeling it they can pull the pin on a session which you can't really do in a State game. It seems as though the counties have a bit more sway over there than the States do here. CA routinely just pulls blokes out of Shield/ domestic LO games and rests them in the build up to a test or LO international series even if they're fringe players and ultimately aren't picked for the Aus side - Sabba for example has missed a fair bit for NSW like that last couple of years.

Edit: it worked against them in India when Cummins bowled arguably his only bad spell ever in the first innings of the first test, but tbh he was ok after that before going home and there were some pretty extraordinary private circumstances involved there. Otherwise they seem not to miss a beat for the most part, which is a credit to the sports science guys I suppose. I'd always like to have them blow the cob webs out, personally.
Let's be honest, trying to predict the fitness of any fast bowler is somewhat of a lottery. Anderson barely missed a Test for a decade and then of course went after 4 overs in 2019. Who knows what will happen this year but it's a fairly safe bet that the 6 which start the First Test will not be the same 6 who play in the 5th.

I don't think the Counties have any more say here. Robinson was pulled from the Sussex game, same as Anderson was at Lancs. England had pretty much decided which games they would play in as warm ups.
 

Top