Maybe, but no Australian team enters an Ashes series unmotivated.
Cummings is a great bowler, great bloke, but not a great captain. Seems too nice. Not sure what the answer is there.
The batting is strong, hopefully Warner won’t be picked. I don’t know what the fitness situation is with their bowlers, but Boland, for example, is the kind of player who might thrive in English conditions.
England will be favourites, but it’s never straightforward for England against the Aussies.
My prediction is that it’ll be entertaining 
I’d rather Warner be picked if I was an England fan. He’s rather hopeless outside of aus and sa
Also Australia don’t seem to have the bowling attack to really thrive in areas where they need to be looking for movement in the air. (Cummins excluded again )
Starc can do some damage in the day night tests but he’s far too inconsistent and he’s majorly someone who pads his stats by getting the tail out.
Not sure what the situation is with Hazlewood again.
Lyon is an improvement over any spinner that England has though but doubt the weather and pitches in England would bring him into play as a major force.
I think that the Australians would likely lose the battle in their heads (as they seem to be doing so far against a slightly average indian team)
It’s 50/50 for me.
Player for player Australia are the stronger team. If you were to make a combined XI there would be more Aussies in it. The team has a lot of players who have performed well in England previously, whilst England have a lot of new faces who are either yet to experience the pressures of Ashes cricket or didn’t do much of note in Australia last winter.
What evens it up a bit for me is England having a superior captain and what seems to be a much better atmosphere around the team in general at the moment.
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Hazlewood and Cummins both did really well over here last time, and Boland to me is a great bet to do damage in England. Starc is obviously a bit hit and miss but I wouldn’t be writing him off. Cam Green is another who I think has the tools to be more than useful in English conditions.
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Yeah, but he’s extremely unlikeable and I’m fed up with seeing his face.
Starc is a bowler who frustrates me incredibly. He is by far the most costly in our team (if we are defending a small target and we need to keep the bowling tight, you can guarantee he’s going to throw down wide after wide) but you know what, his tail-end stat-bumping wickets would have been really useful in India.
The Ashes are always a difficult one for our batsmen. If Warner somehow survives the cut going into the Ashes (spoiler alert: he does), I have absolutely no confidence in him. We will again be relying on Smith and Marnus. But I do think our bowling lineup is worlds better than England’s. They are likely better in English conditions but lets wait and see.
Just hope the next 2 India tests aren’t a complete head-fuck for our players going into the Ashes.
You guys haven’t lost a series in India since 2012. There’s a reason for that. There’s no need to play down your own team just as a means to put the boot into Australia.
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Just saying that this present indian team has three top order batsmen in kl,Kohli and pujara out of form. Plus newcomers in Iyer/sky batting there. This indian team is clearly beatable esp when you count the unfortunate injury to Pant.
The three spin bowling allrounders are majorly responsible for digging india out of their self imposed batting woes.
Look at the batting order… The top 5
Warner
Khawaja
Marnus
Smith
Head
All good on paper, but Warner and Khawaja don’t offer enough protection on top and getting one of Smith / marnus out will put loads of pressure.
I don’t really buy into ‘if you just get this in-form player out then they are in trouble’ comments as that applies to every team in world cricket. No team has 6 top order batsmen all in good form. In fact, based on their recent scoring returns it applies less to Australia than anyone else.
There are of course question marks. Travis has scored a tonne of runs but knowing he wants to hit it, can he bat with a cool head when we lose a couple of quick wickets? Kawaja has also been in good form but he hasn’t done well in England. Will he be able to weather an early storm, especially when Warner is out in the first over? Will our tail fair better in English conditions than they have in India? Almost certainly but we need to see.
Bring on the Ashes.
The Aussies are more than equiped to take 20 wickets. Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, Boland and Garry are hopefully fit and can deal with this Bazball nonsense.
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Special game. Such a nice spectacle and what a come back.
Going happen at times, well played NZ.
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Learn the lessons from this for the Ashes and move on.
And get Stokes’ knee fixed
England team for the Ashes
Bairstow
Duckett
Pope
Root
Brook
Stokes
Foakes
Ahmed
Robinson
Archer
Anderson
Let’s be real - there is always a justification for putting the boot into Australia.
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[quote=“Klopptimist, post:3036, topic:225, full:true”]
Just casting the first Ashes stoush….it will be on……can’t wait to retain 
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