Steve Waugh confident of Australia winning the Ashes

Steve Waugh believes Warner’s start would be important

After a nightmarish batting performance by Australia in India, former England Cricketer Ian Botham feels that this was one of the Australia’s worst performances. He also thought that the present England team would find rather easy to win the Ashes. However, he perhaps forgot about Australia’s pace-attack that can rattle England’s top-class batsman.

However, former Australia’s victorious skipper Steve Waugh was extremely opposite to Ian Botham as he belives that this Australian team can win the Ashes provided that if their batting shines. “I honestly think we can win the Ashes. We’ve got the bowlers to take 20 wickets. If that’s the case you can win any Test match. It just needs a couple of batsmen to find a bit of form.

“Shane Watson, I think, has the potential to be a really great Test batsman, if he can step up to the mark along with Michael Clarke and some of the younger guys. I like the look of Phil Hughes, he’s got something deep within him that makes him a long-term Test player; we’ve got Dave Warner.

“There’s enough talent there, we just need some confidence in that line-up and if we follow on from the damage the bowlers are going to do, I think we can win the Ashes.”

The results in India showed that the players need a bit more practice on turning wickets and shouldn’t be compared with Ashes. The surfaces in England are completely different from India and it is similar to that of WACA wicket. The only problem Australia would have is on weather conditions which help the ball to swing more. Therefore, Steve Waugh belives that if the Australian batsman can show patience, then they can definitely score runs.

“I think we’re just going to have to have patience with the current team,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of 1985-86 when I first came into the Australian side. It took us a couple of years to know how to win … 13 Test matches before I played in a winning Test side; 26 Tests before I scored a century. So, we’ve got to have patience in the side, believe in who we’ve got. We have to pick and stick for a while.”

England have a home series against New Zealand in May while Australia have the Champions Trophy alone before the Ashes Series. The Ashes kicks off on July 10 at Nottingham.