TOPIC:

England have got the batting practice they wanted before it starts - Ireland have just been throwing Pies and a hell of a lot of them
Ridiculous fixturing though , hardly a fair even chance and not a great thing for cricket but it'll work for England 

Will be interesting to see how Australia cope with the style of cricket England are now playing. As India's Pant showed a few years ago in Brisbane, Australia don't respond well to teams counter attacking them. They will need to have plans B, C and D to deal with an opposition playing with no fear.

Travis Head will be a critical player in this series because he is the only Australian batsman capable of playing in the same chaotic manner that the English batsmen have embraced. Head came in with Australia 4-30 in the last ashes in Hobart. He turned the game around in a couple of hours with a brilliant century.
Australia will need a few knocks similar to that from him.

There is a bit of a "Dads Army" feel about the Australian team as many of the players are on the wrong side of 30 and there doesn't seem to be any obvious replacements. 

Warner has already pre-empted his retirement, others will probably follow in the next 12-18 months. 
It is important that Australia use their warm up game against India to get into form

the Test against Ireland told everything about McCullum's plans and some reports are that there might be a few grounds that have had their boundaries shortened for the series
But that could also help Australia 
The Squad is past veteran , it's going to cause years of pain coming

Will be interesting to see what sort of pitches they produce. Maybe we need to have a plan to bowl a wider line if the batsmen are scoring fast to force them to take risks

No surprises with Hazlewood missing the WTC v India with injury....good to see Neser in the squad....and out of Cummins, Starc and Boland....Neser is the only match hardened out of them all....and he is going to miss out. 

Ashes wise Aust may have a squad on the wrong side of 30....but could need some experience in the bowling dept re England's Baz Ball philosophy. So far majority of the bowling attacks the likes of Duckett, Brooks etc have succeeded against have been pretty inexperienced.....one would think Aust bowlers have enough nous to keep England's attack attack approach in check...time will tell.

 

Leach is now ruled out for the whole series so that will force England to rethink their bowling strategy. They may need to play Anderson and Broad in alternating tests or risk overloading them. I'm sure Neser will get a look in at some stage as the Australians will be playing 6 tests in 7 Weeks and will have to manage their bowlers through this.

Reckon Eng might pick Warnies little protégé for Leach.....

Unsure if the English openers can bat, to Duckett the follpwing field from first ball--
in out field
third man
deep cover
two gullies
top of off stump bowling
no short bowling

Ark it'll be decided by Australia's selectors - any fuck ups like their incompetent selection debacles in India will see a swift defeat
If you'll notice Australia has poor selectors , most of whom were only just average players , who lack foresight and planning and it will be totally exposed very shortly
England will never have a bigger chance to smash Australia

 

Agreed Southerner. If England get on a roll in this series they will be very hard to stop. Australia need to win the first test.