The Road To The Ashes
The Ashes might be 6 months away but words are already being exchanged by the two teams as the road to the ashes slowly builds. Graeme Swann, widely regarded as the flagship spin bowler for England, has come out swinging. Not only does he believe he will be fully fit to take part in the third ashes series of his career, he is also confident that England will overcome Australia to acquire the Ashes and bring the urn back home.
Australia on the other hand, fancies their chances too despite receiving a 0-4 drubbing by India on Indian soil. Michael Clarke made it clear that his side will not make things easy for the English team.
“We have the home advantage” he remarked in a recent interview. “And we also have a fairly lethal bowling unit that is capable of taking plenty wickets especially on our pitches.”
While Clarke might be right about the bowling attack, questions remain on the Australian batting line up. Once regarded as the finest in the world, it is now struggling to cope with the retirement of one legend after another. There is no Adam Gilchrist, no Matthew Hayden, and no Hussey. The team continues to struggle to find a good opening pair, though David Warner is showing great promise.
The most worrying fact is the team’s inability to find a suitable batsman to fit the big shoes of Ricky Ponting, arguably the 2nd best batsmen Australia have ever produced apart from the great Don. Many contenders have come and gone with little to no impact.
Australia has a near perfect record at home and England is fully aware of this. They are not known to hand over wins and won’t go down without a fight.
All in all, it is expected to be a cracker of a series in Australia, one that no cricket fan would want to miss, even the neutral.
