5 reasons why Australia are Ashes favourites

Capitalising on England’s weaknesses

Australia built on Engalnd's dependence on Alastair Cook

It’s a known fact that England are over-dependent on Alastair Cook and Joe Root with the bat and James Anderson and Stuart Broad with the ball. Australia figured that out pretty quick and had a strategy in mind to remove Cook and Root early.

Alastair Cook can bat long hours and can cause serious trouble for Australia. So, through Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood, they managed to get an edge over Cook as he managed a meagre 9 runs in the match.

Whether Australia can carry this momentum forward has to be seen but they have set the stage for Cook and England to worry. With England’s middle-order looking rather wobbly and out of confidence, Nathan Lyon nipped out Stoneman, Malan and Moeen Ali in the second innings which was crucial to Australia’s win, as Joe Root was looking good but he couldn’t get enough support at the other end.

As a team they managed to play out the threat of Anderson and Broad pretty well in the second innings and then they attacked the other bowlers who didn’t show much promise.

The fact that Australia were aware of England’s strengths and able to build a strategy to negate them augers well for them with 4 games left in the series. This certainly is a positive sign and something which gives us the impression that Australia can go on to win this Ashes.