Whatever you do, do not believe a word of it, they will both say it is of no consequence to what is coming but we reckon that’s a crock.
Like two old wise yet weary gladiators brought face-to-face once again, this Saturday will see Australia face up to England on its own turf in what will be a precursor to the Ashes that starts on July 10th at Trent Bridge.
And you can bet your bottom dollar that both sides will want to get off to a winning start.
Many an England supporter will recall down to the smallest detail how England’s beating of Australia in the 2004 Champions Trophy was the turning point for their 2005 Ashes victory.
Suddenly the whole of England believed, they believed that those Antipodean cricketing freaks from Down Under could be beaten.
A generation of fans in England grew up knowing nothing more than defeat at the hands of those baggy green wearing warriors and many an English Test star stared at an incoming McGrath holding in his hands the ball of defeat.
Hell, he would even tell you the outcome before the Ashes started: 5-0.
Oh, how the Poms laughed after their famous 2005 series victory.
Here goes McGrath stating it will be 5-0 in the follow up, because he has to say that, that is what he does.
And how us Aussies laughed when we kicked those little Pommie backsides back to Blighty with 5-0 firmly stamped all over their famous three lions, on their white shirts.
We’ll give them credit where it is due as they bounced back, then they really bounced back again in our back yard.
They walked up to our BBQ and with their Thames-stained fingers picked up our thick cut Scotch fillet and shoved it down their throats then, stopping to guzzle our finest Barossa red, they left with blood stained teeth and a sneer.
Now they are waiting for us and from what we can read in their red-topped papers, it is with glee.
We could hear the hand clapping and back slapping from here when our Captain, Michael Clarke, was ruled out of the clash with a lower back injury.
Arguably the world’s best batsman at the moment, it was a hammer blow for the Australian team as he averages 44.69 in one-dayers.
But that’s ok right? We aren’t a one-man team.
What about Glen Maxwell? Those Poms know all about him.
Last year he left Australia to ply his trade in England and ended up joining South Wilts CC in the Southern League.
Within a year he had played Twenty20 cricket for Hampshire, where he proved he could smack a ball out of the ground if necessary, then he went on to represent Australia and finally earned himself a $1 million contract in the IPL.
England on the other hand has their own big hitter, Jos Buttler, the 22-year-old who took it to the Black Caps last Wednesday scoring 47 not out from 16 balls.
Ouch!
Warney might complain that he is frustrated by the Australian selectors, telling BBC Radio 5 Live that it appears they don’t know their best team.
“They’ve picked players that have not performed well at first-class level or international level,” Warne said.
Meanwhile, in the England camp all is not well coming into Saturday’s match.
With Broad and Finn out injured England has a three-pronged bowling attack and poor old Jade Dernbach may have played his last one-day match after he was destroyed by Martin Guptill.
Nasser Hussain pointed to this in his column for the Daily Mail and believes that England could be in trouble.
Who knows who is in trouble? We don’t.
What we do know is that Saturday night will see the beginning of a modern day Priscus versus Verus gladiatorial battle.
They could both be evenly matched yet one of them will walk away triumphant.
What do you think?
Aakash ATGM Bhat
Roar Rookie
Maxwell can open nd has opened for us before nd he can also be a spin option,so i dnt think its as difficult a decision to make as you may think it is.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Starc will very likely make way for Doherty. But Warner will stay in the side because with Clarke's injury the only other batting option is Maxwell. I don't see them ditching Warner for Maxwell.
Aakash ATGM Bhat
Roar Rookie
I think we will beat srilanka and newzealand.... starc nd warner must b axed
JGK
Roar Guru
Is the Australia A side the one who also relies on Peter Siddle to get a decent score?
Montero
Roar Rookie
What do you think? I think The Ashes are not going to be competitive, which is a disaster for Cricket.
Nudge
Guest
Gee bearfax I was enjoying and agreeing with what you had to say until you got too the Clarke thing. I hope your gut feeling is very very wrong
Bearfax
Guest
A few pluses. Faulkner did well with the bat and quite reasonable with the ball. Bailey was solid. Hughes was tentative but at least he picked up a little time in the middle with 30. The openers were disappointing and one wonders if Warner has lost his confidence trying to adjust his batting style. Starc continues to be threatening but leaks far too many runs. Haddin's and Siddle's centuries in the 'A' game were encouraging and nice to see Khawaja score a 51 in the first innings, though he should have gone on with it. Fortunately at this stage England havent faced Bird, Patterson and Rogers yet, who we will be relying on heavily for this coming Ashes tour. If Ahmed offers decent spin it could be an interesting battle for the last test spot with Lyon. Australia were easily beaten in the first ODI match, but there were some encouraging signs and really this tour is about the Ashes isnt it? Getting a couple of our strike players in form (and England had already had some hard matches) will enhance our chances. The key though has and always will be for the next year or two, the performances of Clarke and whether his body will be able to hold out much longer. I have a gut feeling though that he is considering retirement in the not too distant future. The back is going to get worse, its a question of how much longer he's prepared to put his body on the line. Rogers tenure may exceed Clarkes in years to come.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Tredwell is a very solid bowler. But the Aussie batsmen gave him far too much respect. They never once tried to take him on despite having heaps of batting left and a ballooning required run rate. With how well Anderson, Broad and Bresnan were bowling, it was clear that for Aus to win they had to take to the lesser bowlers. They needed to at least try to hit Tredwell and Root off their lengths instead of letting them settle into a comfortable rhythm. If they had attacked them it would have forced Cook to juggle his bowlers more. Instead he was allowed to use his bowlers as he pleased.
MervUK
Guest
Just a couple of things, although he looks innocuous tredwell is a quality bowler, he's not easy to go after as he's proved many times before, but clearly root and bopara got a relatively easy ride. As a Yorkshire fan, I've seen a bit of starc and its fair to say he was very impressive and very popular with the fans and certainly with the players, we have a relatively young squad at headingley- so it seems he fitted in well. When he gets it right he's superb, but as is the case with any young quick, he's inconsistent at times... Give him a break, he has a ridiculously good fast bowling skill set, but sometimes it doesn't all 'click'. He's a bit like jimmy Anderson was in 2002, and I imagine will be a very good international cricketer in a few years.
Nudge
Guest
Not sure how much you know about cricket when you keep banging on about starc's terrible first class record should see him back playing grade cricket. The lad has just turned 23 which is a baby in terms of fast bowling and with a first class record of 32 suggests he is certainly a very exciting prospect for australia
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
But this isn't First Class cricket Cuzza. His ODI record suggests he is a budding star in that format - 37 wickets at 20 is a hell of a start to his career. That includes 14 wickets at 19 in matches in Asia so he doesn't need helpful pitches to succeed. The issue for Starc yesterday was not the conditions and lack of swing but his rhythm. From his first over it was clear something wasn't right - he was down on pace and was not completing his action. The commentators noted this. Bailey should have noticed it too and shelved Starc in favour of bowling out Watto and Johnson, who were left with 5 unbowled overs between them.
cuzza
Guest
This shows that Starc is useless unless conditions are perfect for him. His first class record suggests he is a grade cricketer.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
The other crucial tactical blunder by the Aussies was bowling Starc at the end of the England innings when he was clearly having a shocking day. Both Johnson and Watto had plenty of overs left and had bowled WAY better than Starc. He then went for 26 off his final 2 overs and that extra 10-12 runs on the England total really hurt and swung the momentum.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
The ball barely swung for either team. Anderson has been quoted bemoaning the fact that the new white Kookaburras don't swing, which was evidenced in the two earlier CT matches also. The crux of the issue was that the England quicks bowled extremely well and the Aussies blundered by not really going after the weaker Root and Tredwell, who were allowed to bowl 15 overs for 71. If the set Aussie batsmen had actually taken them on instead of just nudging singles the required run rate wouldn't have soared to the point that later batsmen had to slog from ball one. The Aussies bat incredibly deep as we saw with Faulkner at 8, not to mention Starc and McKay at 10 and 11, so they needed to risk some wickets between overs 15 and 30 to up the run rate. Tactically a poor effort.
Tasman
Guest
I think we are in for couple of surprises. It is certainly going to be a lot closer than most people give credit to the team. Have you guys been following the Australia A team?
James
Guest
and australia just got their behinds handed to them by england. as mentioned what is the major concern is that swining ball that Australia just cannot bat against.
JGK
Roar Guru
England just got their behinds handed to them by the Kiwis.
Tom Callaghan
Guest
JGK, The truth is that Australia's bowlers did not have the skill to swing the ball whereas England's bowlers had the skill. Australia's batsmen had no idea how to play the moving ball. Starc lacked the ability to tie England's batsmen down. Australia are truly mediocre whereas England are a decent efficient outfit.
JGK
Roar Guru
Two average ODI teams. One looked like they at least have some games under their belt. The other just looked inept.