England’s recent form in the World Cup will give them a lot of confidence with Jofra Archer bowling quick and batsmen – Joe Root , Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes all scoring a significant amount of runs.
Let’s have a look at the probable line ups of the two teams going into the first Test of the series at the beginning of August.
England
England’s biggest conundrum is - who is going to open the innings? Sir Alastair Cook retired last year and since then England have struggled to find an opening partnership that works and this season, in the County Championship, the top order batsmen – Rory Burns, Keaton Jennings and Joe Denly have not scored enough runs to warrant selection. Who else can England look to? Sam Northeast, Dominic Sibley and Gary Ballance are the leading run scorers but should the selectors look to the World Cup players to fil the slots – Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow?
Probable Squad for 1st Test - Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, Jimmy Anderson, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Dominic Sibley/Gary Ballance
Australia
Australia will be looking for fitness and endurance for a long 5 Test Match series against England and will probably go with their Test team that beat Pakistan earlier in the year. The three ‘bad boys’ Smith, Warner and Bancroft are back…. And Cameron Bancroft has been scoring a lot of runs, for Durham, in the County Championship. The Australia conundrum is – where does Tim Paine fit in? Alex Carey has to be in after a great World Cup
Probable Squad for 1st Test – David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Alex Carey, AJ Finch, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Behrendorff,, Steve Smith, Adam Zampa, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Tim Paine
Predictions
The odds are definitely in favour of England taking the Ashes back from Australia so if you are thinking of a punt on the free casino slots save it for an England win.
Top run scorers will be Joe Root and David Warner and top wicket takers Jofra Archer and Mitchell Starc.
Schedule
August 1st - 5th 1st Test, Edgbaston (11:00 BST)
August 14th - 18th 2nd Test, Lord's (11:00 BST)
August 22nd - 26th 3rd Test, Headingley (11:00 BST)
September 4th – 8th 4th Test, Old Trafford (11:00 BST)
September 12th - 16th 5th Test, The Oval (11:00 BST)