Australia is officially at the top of the leaderboard in the test format. They defeated India in the final one-off test match of the ICC World Test Championship 2023 by 209 runs. The next challenge on their way is the Ashes, where the England cricket team is waiting to avenge their previous loss.
The 2021–22 series was nearly a whitewash, with the Aussies clinching a 4-0 win in the 5-test series. The fourth event ended in a draw, but Australia won the final match and delivered a heavy blow to their opponents.
Ashes 2023 begins on June 16, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. IST. Edgbaston will host the opener. The hosts have lost four matches versus the Aussies while winning six and drawing five of their last 15 matches. Giving them brighter hope are the overall 29 wins and 10 losses at the venue.
Nevertheless, the English team has changed. It will do everything in its power to bounce back against the currency champions of the WTC.
The team’s management has enrolled Brendon McCullum as their coach and sacked Chris Silverwood. A similar change can be seen in the captain’s position, which Ben Stokes now occupies after Joe Root resigned.
Let’s take each side individually to understand what can work for them in the Ashes 2023.
Steve Smith stood firm in the finals versus India to bring up a total of 121 runs off 268 balls. He failed to accelerate in the second inning, but that was unnecessary. So, no harm, no foul for the Aussies. Travis Head powered across 163 runs at a time when Usman Khawaja could not go beyond zero.
The second innings began, and before declaring the wickets, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc put up a standout partnership for their team. In other words, the middle order can hold down the fort when necessary. They have an excellent chance of maintaining their momentum in Edgbaston.
England has the pride of losing just 2 out of 13 tests in the intervening year. As a matter of fact, they are now even the pioneers of the term baseball in cricket. Ben Stokes has a winning percentage of 79% in the test format as a skipper. That is the maximum anyone has gone to in England, considering 10 as the lowest number of matches.
The month of June, specifically, started for them with a victory against Ireland by 10 wickets. That was a one-off test that ended on the third day itself.
Edgbaston’s pitch is expected to favor batters heavily despite the neutral stand. Bowlers will benefit from throwing a few bouncy punches, but that’s it. Batters will ultimately find a way to take a sideways step and shoot differently.
Fast bowlers will benefit only if England gets cloudy weather. Day three will be mysterious, while the first half could tilt toward pacers, and the remaining two days could help spinners. Some of the best online betting sites for cricket invest more in Australia than England. This is majorly out of the context that they recently won ICC WTC 2023.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad will lead the bowling attack for England.
The following two test matches will be played from June 28, 2023, to July 2, 2023, July 6, 2023, and July 10, 2023. Fans can consider it the second chance for Australia to enter the finals again. For England, an opportunity to bring back the glory of the Ashes.
