Love the Ashes. Really looking forward to this series. While I'm confident that Australia has the better side and would comfortably win if the series was held anywhere else, I think English conditions will make for a much more even contest.
English batting could be diamonds or rocks - Bell, Cook, Stokes have all had successes against Australia and Root is a class batsman. They also will bat deep if Ali is the spinner. Buttler has something about him too. Having said that, I don't think their batting has the weight of runs in recent years that we have with Rogers, Warner, Smith. Still some question marks over the Aussie batting and we've seen a reliance on the lower order to get us out of trouble. That's not ideal. We also fail regularly against the moving ball (spin, seam or swing) and chances are Anderson will hoop it around at some point. It is going to be fascinating to see how the techniques of Warner and Smith stand up against that. Love Voges and Rogers in the side though - so much experience in these conditions.
On recent records, our bowling is superior but, again, English conditions even things up. It is not unusual for young fast bowlers to struggle on their first trip to England and the likes of Starc, Hazelwood and Cummins don't have long county careers to rely on. Lyon has been taken to in the lead up matches but no spinner shows their wares before the tests start.
Going to be fascinating. I'm quietly confident of a series win but 2-2 wouldn't surprise.