Ashes 25/26

[Sykes_]

After seeing how England performed against India, I’m convinced they’ll be taking the urn off us.

Hard to find any weaknesses in their batting who will destroy our ageing bowling attack.
On the flip side, the only reliable batsmen we have is Carey. If Wood and Archer are fit, they’ll tear through us.

We could be looking at a repeat of the 10/11 Ashes - concerning times.

 

[Bedi]

After seeing how England performed against India, I’m convinced they’ll be taking the urn off us.

Hard to find any weaknesses in their batting who will destroy our ageing bowling attack.
On the flip side, the only reliable batsmen we have is Carey. If Wood and Archer are fit, they’ll tear through us.

We could be looking at a repeat of the 10/11 Ashes - concerning times.

Absolutely reason for concern. A lot of talent in this side, and both last night, and the way they were able to beat NZ is testimony to this.

With that said, reckon we remain favourites. Purely on the fact their bowling is a lesser strength. But yes, fear is a fit and firing Jofra Archer. He's a long way from it as we speak, but he remains the real X factor. A genuine match winner on his day. Bethell is the other concern. This guy is going to be a star (if he isn't already), so watch out for him to add to their batting arsenal.

 

[Trojan90]

Definitely a threat, they are a better batting side than us. But that bowling attack is woeful. Seales and Joseph would walk into that side, and their spinner currently is Bashir. I'm not too excited about England's win over India. India aren't that good, and threw away that game. Don't forget we recently beat them 3-1 (basically 4-1).

 

[Sykes_]

Say goodbye to the urn… This is dreadful

 

[Aido97]

Say goodbye to the urn… This is dreadful

How is a bowling line up of Woakes, Carse, Tongue, ashir & Stokes going to take 20 wickets on Australian wickets with a kookabarra

 

[eddiesmith]

Australia is still favourites on their flat pitches at home, but the new rules regarding over rates will see England getting an extra 100 runs a day, could we see a 0-0 series?

 

[beatnik]

Australia is still favourites on their flat pitches at home, but the new rules regarding over rates will see England getting an extra 100 runs a day, could we see a 0-0 series?

You think Australia has flat pitches?

 

[Cmarsh]

Yeah generally speaking I don't think Australian pitches could be reasonably accused of being flat anymore.

 

[Kapow!!!]

Yeah generally speaking I don't think Australian pitches could be reasonably accused of being flat anymore.

English pitches however...

 

[Around the Wicket]

How is a bowling line up of Woakes, Carse, Tongue, ashir & Stokes going to take 20 wickets on Australian wickets with a kookabarra

TBH even weak sides have easily rolled the Aussies in the recent years.. there all green tracks.. its just what side can bat the best will win the series.

 

[eddiesmith]

You think Australia has flat pitches?

Adelaide, Sydney, Perth definitely are. Melbourne goes from flat to tough depending on the mood of the curator.

 

[DaRick]

Adelaide, Sydney, Perth definitely are. Melbourne goes from flat to tough depending on the mood of the curator.

Adelaide hasn't really been flat since 2015. I wouldn't say that the pitches at the Optus Stadium are particularly flat, either.

RE ENG, they're definitely a threat, especially if we lose our minds and bowl short-pitched crap (always a possibility). But Root aside, their batsmen each have technical weaknesses (Crawley and Duckett outside off-stump, Brook to the short ball, Pope against overspin) and Bazball is definitely easier to execute on ENG/NZ grounds than on Australian grounds.

The one Indian batsman who tried adopting that approach in 2024/25 (Pant) often came a cropper.

Carse seems talented, but Shoaib Bashir will provide a constant reservoir of boundary balls, and it's pretty hard to win a series in AUS when your spinner is leaking runs. Also not sold on Josh Tongue in our conditions.

A fully-fit Archer/Wood are an unsettling prospect, but I doubt they could get through five Tests.

We do badly need to sort out our top order, however.

 

[eddiesmith]

Adelaide hasn't really been flat since 2015. I wouldn't say that the pitches at the Optus Stadium are particularly flat, either.

RE ENG, they're definitely a threat, especially if we lose our minds and bowl short-pitched crap (always a possibility). But Root aside, their batsmen each have technical weaknesses (Crawley and Duckett outside off-stump, Brook to the short ball, Pope against overspin) and Bazball is definitely easier to execute on ENG/NZ grounds than on Australian grounds.

The one Indian batsman who tried adopting that approach in 2024/25 (Pant) often came a cropper.

Carse seems talented, but Shoaib Bashir will provide a constant reservoir of boundary balls, and it's pretty hard to win a series in AUS when your spinner is leaking runs. Also not sold on Josh Tongue in our conditions.

A fully-fit Archer/Wood are an unsettling prospect, but I doubt they could get through five Tests.

We do badly need to sort out our top order, however.

Adelaide is still flat, the pink ball brings down the scores but the pitch is great for batting in the daytime.

Perth has had 450+ scores in at least one innings in every test played there.

Both batting sides have their flaws, Australia has the advantage in bowling on their home pitches. Englands best chance is winning the toss and putting some early scoreboard pressure on Australia. Sydney is probably the ground most suited to Bazball and chasing in the 4th innings.

 

[Gough]

I'd just like to see England turn up. We see great series in England and when they come out here they fold like a cheap suit.

 

[Jack Mundy]

How is a bowling line up of Woakes, Carse, Tongue, ashir & Stokes going to take 20 wickets on Australian wickets with a kookabarra

Over 5 tests

 

[Borisdog]

How is a bowling line up of Woakes, Carse, Tongue, ashir & Stokes going to take 20 wickets on Australian wickets with a kookabarra

I seriously doubt that will be their attack.

At this point Jofra is looking to return, he will be here if fit.

Carse is a very, very good bowler. He will do well in Oz.

Their problem isn't the bowling, their problem is the belief.

We are ripe for the taking, our batting is not settled and our leadership has proven fragile on several occasions over the last 3-5 years when under pressure.

We are not in great shape.

 

[sabso]

funny seeing the Aussie supporters thinking they have no chance when my opinion as a pom is the complete opposite. Bazball bowling consists of calculated tactics to dismiss specific specialist batsmen, and hope the rest get out just from facing balls. There’s precious little testing batsmen’s technique and no impetus for stokes to think on his feet and change things if they’re not working.

England have been rank failures with the bat the last few ashes tours and I don’t see that changing - the home bowlers in home conditions know what they’re doing. Only chance we might get is if we bat on a road and get 600.

We’ll be lucky to win any of the first three matches, might be a chance for Melbourne and probably be fatigued for Sydney.

 

[big_e]

We were mess going into the last home Ashes and still belted them. There's a chance it could go differently this time, but it's a tiny, tiny chance.

 

[Gough]

Looking at our schedule it's hard to see how playing a shit load of white ball cricket is going to prepare us properly especially if you assume that for the Indian tour they'll want something close to a full strength side.

 

[PhatBoy]

We were mess going into the last home Ashes and still belted them. There's a chance it could go differently this time, but it's a tiny, tiny chance.

Mess is a slight exaggeration.

Australia had lost the home series to India 2-1 but it was close, and before those 2 defeats had won 6 tests in a row. Australia had gone 10 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws from 16 tests before that series.

 

[big_e]

Mess is a slight exaggeration.

Australia had lost the home series to India 2-1 but it was close, and before those 2 defeats had won 6 tests in a row. Australia had gone 10 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws from 16 tests before that series.

Was thinking more of a "captain resigning because of dick pics" mess....

 

[PhatBoy]

Was thinking more of a "captain resigning because of dick pics" mess....

Yeah fair enough.

On an unrelated note, just saw some of Stokes’ press conference.

He has a real issue at the moment with doubling down on the stuff that causes the isssues.

I think - I could be wrong - I think a fair few people could probably handle some of the onfield stuff as ‘ok this is a bit of gamesmanship trying to get off the field, trying to get a few barbs in before the last match but then India make their minds up to keep batting so you accept it, you walk off the field and it’s done.’ He goes into the presser and initially he actually gives them quite a lot of praise - he says ‘they batted very, very well. Those two batted incredibly well after we’d given ourselves a bit of an opening to give ourselves a chance of winning.’

He’s ticking all the boxes of what a captain should say.

Then he doubles down on the stuff that is raising eyebrows in the first place - he had a chance to say ‘we basically had tried everything and the game was saved and we were hoping for an early finish but they had done the hard work, we weren’t going to risk any damage to our bowlers so, what’s done is done’ but instead he keeps going with the line of ‘what’s the difference after you’ve saved the game whether you’re on 90 or 100?’

If he shuts his mouth, he’s probably not done too much damage to himself or his team. Instead with that one line he ****s them completely

 

[sabso]

Stokes just had no idea what to do with his bowlers. Rahul gill pant and jadeja are already on top of England with the bat in general. His worst as a fielding captain reaches max gawn

11

Max Gawn

Age

33

Ht

209cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.1

4star

K

7.4

3star

HB

6.7

4star

CL

2.8

4star

HO

35.3

5star

D

18.5

4star

K

11.5

4star

HB

7.0

4star

CL

3.5

4star

HO

29.2

5star

D

8.4

3star

K

3.6

2star

HB

4.8

4star

CL

1.0

3star

HO

15.6

5star

with 8 seconds to go levels of failure.

 

[MarcMaverick]

After our tour of the WIndies, I am very nervous for our XI

 

[scottywiper]

I think we need to bend the knee and thank England for saving Test cricket.