Road to the Ashes 2021/22

[Gob]

Yes, also against way better bowlers

Never seen anyone who looked as comfortable as Mark was against great fast blowers

 

[TheJediBrah]

Never seen anyone who looked as comfortable as Mark was against great fast blowers

He would play some incredible knocks at really tough times, but then on a flat wicket against second-raters just always get out somehow

 

[Gob]

Never seen anyone who looked as comfortable as Mark was against great fast blowers

 

[sunilz]

Will this be the weakest England team to tour Aus since 90s ?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Will this be the weakest England team to tour Aus since 90s ?

On paper, almost certainly.

The two teams who copped 5-nillers both looked considerably stronger in theory than they proved in reality though, tiptoeing through the tulip fields of the bleedin' obvious as I am.

 

[Gob]

On paper, almost certainly.

The two teams who copped 5-nillers both looked considerably stronger in theory than they proved in reality though, tiptoeing through the tulip fields of the bleedin' obvious as I am.

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Giles
Hoggard
Harmison
Anderson

vs

Cook
Carnberry
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Root
Prior
Broad
Swann
Tremelett
Anderson

starting lineups. Things went down hard afterwards but yeah pretty decent

 

[Gob]

Further evidence to how papers lie

Aust Melbourne 2010

Watson
Hughes
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Smith
Haddin
Johnson
Harris
Siddle
Hilfenhause

 

[Burgey]

I'm honestly not Gambhiring here, but I really think the Ashes is more or less a free hit for Australia.

Wood's the only one of our bowlers who's capable of 140kmh with regularity who isn't currently broken, our batting has no top order and a tail that starts at five, and Stokes's head is still ****ed from losing his dad.

Root might haul us to a couple of semi-competitive scores, but at the time of writing I don't think he has any tons in Oz yet, so that's far from a given.

I suppose what will possibly make the series competitive is how bad Australia's batting is too. Really, the only two spots in the order who you'd put money on scoring with any level of consistency these days are three and four. I know a number of people don't agree, but I'm of the view Warner is a shot duck, and there's no proven partner for him, let alone a replacement. There's a big chance Aus will regularly be one and two for not many, and if that's the case, the new ball is always a chance of picking the big two wickets up cheaply.

I do think Aus will win, but I don't see it being the sort of cake walk it's been for three of the past four tours tbh. I'm hoping England doesn't win a test though, as it would be awesome for them to go over a decade without doing so here.

 

[fredfertang]

Matty Parkinson > Shane Warne

Job done .....

 

[sunilz]

I do think Aus will win, but I don't see it being the sort of cake walk it's been for three of the past four tours tbh. I'm hoping England doesn't win a test though, as it would be awesome for them to go over a decade without doing so here.

Unless I am missing something, it has already been 10 years since 10/11 ashes

 

[Burgey]

lol indeed. My bad.

 

[andruid]

Matty Parkinson > Shane Warne

Job done .....

At human decency right?

 

[Burgey]

At human decency right?

So was Carl Panzram

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I haven’t expected us to win in Australia since the 1978/79 tour, so the couple of wins were a bonus.

 

[GIMH]

We always used to win a Test at least though

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I think we might win a Test this time. Australia are not that strong, especially if Smith isn’t fully fit. Despite the chronic limitations our batting does have potential for the occasional big score. If the moon is in the seventh house we might sneak one.

 

[honestbharani]

You guys have to play Crawley and Lawrence, or at least one of them. Feel like they will be good in Australia. And take the pressure off Root.

 

[Nintendo]

Sibley and lawrence where both fantastic last time the lions toured australia, particularly lawrence. Don't know how you fit him in though. Burns Hameed Malan root pope bairstow woakes/moeen as a top 7 doesnt inspire a huge amount of confidence, but none of the guys in there have done a huge amoint wrong recently bar bairstow, who's keeping.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Love my cricket, but god I'm feeling really flat about the Ashes currently. Don't necessarily think it will be completely one sided, but no Archer and potentially no Stokes in a series of this magnitude feels very meh

Maybe by the first week of December I'll have perked up!

 

[stephen]

Love my cricket, but god I'm feeling really flat about the Ashes currently. Don't necessarily think it will be completely one sided, but no Archer and potentially no Stokes in a series of this magnitude feels very meh

Maybe by the first week of December I'll have perked up!

Stokes keeps finding reasons to not tour here.