All eyes on Cardiff as England and Australia resume their historic battle

Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke – Who will grab the Urn?

The battle lines are drawn as the 69th edition of the Ashes gets underway on July 8 at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff. Both teams, England and Australia, look fired up and raring to go. The England team is coming at the back of a drawn Test series against New Zealand and a hard fought ODI series which they won against the same team. The Aussies, on the other hand, delivered a clean sweep on their West Indies tour beating the home side 2-0 in the Test series.

There is a lot of hype surrounding this year’s Ashes as experts of the game and fans alike expect it to be a very keenly contested one. The reason for this is simple – both teams appear to be on top of their game at present. While the Australians are doing what they do best (dominate the opposition), the English are flying high on their newly found aggressive spirit. Both teams have heavy artillery in terms of both batting and bowling and are also being led by two modern-day greats, Michael Clarke and Alastair Cook.

The first Test at Cardiff is most likely to set the tone for the remainder of the series. It is tough to say which of the two teams has the edge going into the opening encounter. The line-ups of both England and Australia are quite identical, at least on paper. Both have a left-handed opening pair, a young batsman shouldering the responsibility in the middle order, a formidable pace bowling unit and the lone spinner in their ranks.

The only major difference between the two sides is the amount of new blood that the English have infused into their squad as opposed to an older Australian team.

Team Preparations

The Aussies will surely be looking to emulate their performance in the previous Ashes series in which they whitewashed England by a 5-0 margin. The preparations have gone quite well for the Aussies so far as they easily won both their practice games against Kent and Essex respectively. What’s important is that almost all their batsmen got some valuable time in the middle and the bowlers too got to bowl a decent amount of overs.

The form of key players will be crucial for the Australia as they go into the 1st Test. The batting will rest on the shoulders of David Warner, Michael Clarke and Steven Smith with Shane Watson or Mitchell Marsh filling in the allrounder’s spot. In the bowling department, all eyes will be on Mitchell Johnson, hero of the previous Ashes series, and Australia’s newest pace bowling sensation Mitchell Starc. They will also require adequate support from Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle.

England, on the other hand, will be looking for redemption for the physical and mental scars they suffered in the last edition. Alastair Cook and Joe Root are the two batting mainstays for them at the moment. The likes of Ian Bell, Gary Ballance and Adam Lyth will have to come good as well if the English want to put pressure on the Aussies. However, they look to have found a new hero in all-rounder Ben Stokes, who is being touted to play the role Andy Flintoff did in the 2005 Ashes.

The bowling looks settled with Anderson and Broad leading from the front and youngsters like Mark Wood and Steve Finn looking to provide support. Spinner Moeen Ali has been among the wickets so far and will be looking to be the partnership breaker once again.

Pitch Conditions

There were indications that the pitch may be more spin-friendly considering the hot weather conditions that were prevailing in Cardiff until late last week. However, with spells of rain making the climate much cooler, all speculations have been laid to rest for now. The curators are hoping that the pitch at the SWALEC Stadium will have more pace this time around, as compared to its usual nature of being a bit on the slow side.

Both teams will be feeling the pressure as the countdown to the first Test of the 2015 Ashes begins. The mood has been upbeat in the two camps thus far as they are confident of laying their hands on the precious ‘Ashes Urn’. It remains to be seen who will have the last laugh.

The action is sure to be high octane in the first of 5 epic battles between two powerhouses of world cricket, so you are well advised to fasten your seatbelts.

Predicted XIs

England – Alastair Cook (C), Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (WK), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wook and James Anderson.

Australia – David Warner, Chris Rogers, Steven Smith, Michael Clarke (C), Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (WK), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood.