England have nothing to fear against struggling Aussies

 
Alec Swann Roar Pro

By , 24 Nov 2010 Alec Swann is a Roar Pro

Tagged:
 , , ,

14 Have your say

Related coverage




In my local paper last Friday, the bet of the week in the weekly gambling column concerned Australia and whether they would regain the Ashes. If you fancy a flutter on the old enemy, then you can now get evens if you are prepared to shop around.

This isn’t that remarkable in itself, but add a bit of context, and there does appear to be some significance.

Ricky Ponting’s charges are still favourites – England are around about the 7/4 mark – and quite rightly so given their astonishing record at home over the past two decades.

But only a couple of weeks ago you would have been fortunate to get anything approaching evens for the Aussies. In fact, you would have struggled to get odds any longer than 4/9.

And there, in a simple number on a bookies’ screen, is a good reason to suspect that England could upset the apple cart.

I’m not one for tagging along with the jingoistic patriotism that has some of the experts predicting an English cakewalk. For starters, England aren’t world beaters quite yet and the Aussies simply won’t roll over.

There are, however, a number of reasons for England to be confident of doing what hasn’t been done since the mid 1980s.

For one, they have settled side that has been developed over a couple of years. Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower may have come to their positions of power by default – or Kevin Pietersen’s ego overloading, which is probably the same thing – but they have planned properly and couldn’t realistically be in any better shape.

Secondly, they have been consistently winning games of cricket. You only have see how quickly the Australians have been turned on following their poor recent run to recognise the importance of such a factor.

And thirdly, they know they have the beating of the Australians. Not many England teams have found themselves in that position and certainly not with their star in the ascendancy.

But while it would be easy to jump on the England to win bandwagon, there has to be an element of caution.

For all their troubles, Australia still possess a battery of world class performers.

Ponting is capable of raising his game significantly, Michael Clarke, if fit, plays spin as well as anyone, Shane Watson has been a revelation at the top of the order and the bowling attack are far more comfortable on home soil.

At to this the indefinable element of a side in pursuit of revenge and you can see why it should be extremely tight throughout.

Yet while these checks and balances should prevent English ambition from running away from them, they shouldn’t push that ambition into the background.

This is as good a chance as England have had to win in Australia for two decades. They know it and their opposite numbers know it.

All that Strauss’ men need to do now is make sure they don’t repeat history and capitulate at the Gabba come Thursday.

No pressure.

Wild Turkey - find out more
The Turkey 10

The Turkey 10 teams have now been selected, as Wild Turkey Bourbon's sport sponsorship kicks into the next exciting phase.

Choose which side you're going to support and get in the running to win $2,500!

Simply visit Wild Turkey Australia on Facebook for your chance to win.

Find out more.

Get a daily cricket email

Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it.

We value privacy. More.