The heat is on
Last weekend saw the British and Irish Lions win their first series in 16 years when they defeated Australia in Sydney and Andy Murray become the first British winner of the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title since Fred Perry in 1936.
Murray’s victory over Novak Djokovic sparked a mood of national sporting euphoria not seen since .... well in fact seen as recently as last year’s London Olympics when British competitors won a clutch of gold medals.
But euphoria is a hard thing to translate from one sport to another. England are favourites as they bid for a third straight Test series win over-arch rivals Australia starting in Nottingham on Wednesday
However, the lesson of history is that touring Australia parties billed as “the weakest to travel for an Ashes” are rarely that.
The last time that line was used was in 1989 when Australia regained the Ashes by a 4-0 margin.
Australia were thrashed 4-0 in India in March, where England won late last year, and come into this series with huge question marks over their batting which, with the exception of captain Michael Clarke, battling a longstanding back problem, lacks proven world-class performers.
However, an attack set to be led by Peter Siddle — fifth in the world rankings — and likely to feature promising pacer James Pattinson could cause England problems. “We’re not going into this game viewing the Australians as anything other than a very difficult team to beat — despite recent results in India, we’re not viewing them as a pushover at all,” said England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
And Australia vice-captain Brad Haddin said the injection of enthusiasm provided by several potential Ashes debutants could be just what the team needs. “One thing we have in our favour is you just don’t know what some of these guys are capable of on the international stage,” said Haddin.
England’s batting in their recent home series win against New Zealand was not as dominant as some had predicted although, significantly, they were then without the injured Kevin Pietersen, now fit following a knee injury.
Pietersen, after scoring a brilliant hundred against South Africa last year, was briefly dropped by England for sending text messages critical of then captain Andrew Strauss to Proteas players. One of Alastair Cook’s first acts as England captain was to bring Pietersen back on board for the tour of India.
Pietersen’s average against Australia — 52.71 — is higher than his impressive career-mark of 49.01 and so long as he remains enthused by the challenge of Test cricket he remains a dangerous opponent.
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