Ashes Predictions

[bird_man]

With the squad named today and the first test looming, I'm interested to know everyone's predictions. Here are mine.

I'm expecting Warner to have a big series and possibly be our leading run scorer, with good support from Rogers, Watson will battle with injury and probably form (something different). Clarke and Smith will be solid without setting the world on fire, and Jimmy Anderson will have it all over George Bailey as he works out his weakness of the short ball. Haddin will throw away his wicket a few times and be under the pump by the end of the series.

Harris is going to dominate and be leading wicket taker for the series, Siddle will be consistent and Johnson will do okay but will eventually be dropped for Pattinson. Lyon will be Lyon, nothing special but he'll do a job.

For England, I expect Cook to bounce back after a quiet series and Bell will annoy the shit out of us again. Jimmy Anderson to be their leading wicket taker.

After an exciting series I'm tipping a 2 all draw.

 

[Docker82]

Trott, Root and Prior will fail again but Bell, Cook and Carberry will be hard to stop. Pieterson won't be his normal self. Anderson, Tremlett and Swann will be a handful again, whilst Broad once again will play like a total hack except for on good performance in the series.

For Australia Rogers will score big. Rest of our batsmen will be consistently inconsistent like always. Even Clarke who is underdone. Siddle and Harris will cause problems like normal but they'll be offset by MJ getting smashed to all parts. Lyon will once again be solid and not fulfilling the publics unrealistic expectations.

Having said that think England 3-1

 

[swingdog]

England 3-1

 

[western royboy]

England 3-0 - they would rather it be 0-0 than risk losing a test. Our pace bowlers need to stand up because the back to back to back Ryobi / Shield treadmill will have most cooked by December.

 

[amer]

Edit: grinding an axe. Actually think we'll see a drawn series, frustratingly.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Australia to win 3-1

 

[The_Reaper]

England 2-1

 

[Smoooothy]

i'm tipping a 2-2 draw.

can see the final test becoming a batting slog, england batting late on day 5 8 or 9 wickets down

 

[Aussie_boy]

Genuinely think we can beat them, Australia 3-1

 

[theyellowsash]

seeing watson chosen as a batsman makes me think england 3-0 or 4-0 just because the selectors again will be rotating their favourites around after each time they fail making 2 changes a test. best case would be a watson injury and khawaja staying out of form so they will be forced to choose a few guys who are actually in form like doolan, white, etc.

 

[Kram]

Australia 5-0

 

[Noobz0r]

Boof to average 3 lunches a day.

 

[weekend at bernies]

If we win at the Gabba i expect Australia to win series 2 - 1

 

[Zach Package]

Rogers to be our leading run scorer

 

[eth-dog]

I have us definitely winning in WACA. I think Adelaide will be a draw. In Sydney I'll say that the poms will win. If we win the first test I'll go with 2-1 Australia, if it's a draw the poms 2-1. So that's:

Gabba: Aus/draw
Ade Oval: draw
WACA: Aus
MCG: Eng/draw
SCG: Eng

 

[Run n Spread]

Brisbane - Australia win
Adelaide - Draw
Perth - Australia win
Melbourne- England win
Sydney - Draw

Australia 2-1. With a few injury clouds over England and a few defficiencies that were apparent last time and could be exploited on Australian pitches I think England could be vulnerable. While Cook and Trott will improve whether they reach the heights of last time is doubtful, a cloud hangs over Pieterson and the rest are unproven. Also condititions won't suit Anderson or Swan as much. Broad and Tremlett could be dangerous but Australia's quicks match them.

Australia has a more settled look then last time, even if they would be desperate for Pattinson and Bird to return and a few who would be desperate to perform as this is there last shot at ashes glory. Career over otherwise for various reasons. (Watson, Rogers, Haddin.

 

[Run n Spread]

England 3-0 - they would rather it be 0-0 than risk losing a test. Our pace bowlers need to stand up because the back to back to back Ryobi / Shield treadmill will have most cooked by December.

Playing for a draw from the get go thou can easily backfire. Particularly if there is some spice in the wicket.

 

[Bucking Beads]

3-0 Australia

Warner most runs.
Johnson most wickets.

 

[The Passenger]

The way the summer is scheduled is good for our chances because our two best chances for victory are in the first 3 tests. If we can hold out in Adelaide - where Swann could have a field day - a 2-0 lead after 3 is not out of the question.

Optimistic thinking but if that were to eventuate then we can go into the two toughest tests knowing a draw regains the Ashes.

For mine our best case result is 2-1, but we could easily get drubbed 4-0 or 4-1.

England 3-1 is my most likely result.

The first test is always crucial, but this one is magnified imo.

 

[swingdog]

My only source of optimism is that with these five test scheduled one after the other, one of England's bowlers is going to break down.

One of ours might as well but, simply because it's at home, we have a broader range of back-ups.

 

[damochandler]

england 4 nill

just not that confident in our batting. if we can replicate the effort of our bowlers. maybe

 

[damochandler]

there won't be a draw at the gabba this year.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

England 4 - 1, assuming weather does not intervene.
At some point the patchy Australian batting order will find two partnerships of note in one innings and pile on 600+ to win a game. Probably the one game that Watson doesn't fail in.

That said, there are some reasons for optimism.
Swann will probably not be all that effective here. He may well be outbowled by Lyon, even if Swan still gets better figures simply due to Australia's batting being more likely to crumble than England's. Even Hughes could handle Swann in Australian conditions, especially as he has shown improvement against spin and has presumably been working on it more since the last Ashes.
England may also have erred in picking tall, bang it into the pitch, bowlers. Australian pitches bounce, but Australian batsmen are uswd to playing that sort of bounce as well. Its a bit like taking too many spinners to India, only to find Indians play spin well.

One thing we did learn on England is that the English batting is remarkably consistent in terms of totals, always around 300-400. Australia can outscore them occassionally, and also fall woefully short of them quite often. If the good totals come at the right times, that might see a series won despite being outplayed for most of it.

Anderson, like Kallis last summer, may be the only bowler to regularly swing the ball and therefore looms as a big difference in the teams.

 

[western royboy]

3-0 Australia

Warner most runs.
Johnson most wickets.

You'll get good odds on all of those - take an all up and you may not have to work again.

 

[Kid A]

England 3-2
Anderson most wickets
KP most runs
for Australia - Bailey to fizzle, Lyon to do OK