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On the surface, England will be very hard to stop at Edgbaston (unless the weather intervenes), Mike.
Australia last beat England in a Birmingham Test in 2001, by an innings and 118 runs.
Obviously, Australia 2019 is not as good as Australia 2001 and England 2019 is not as bad as England 2001.
However, on my one (lager-filled) trip to the Old Dart, in 1989, I was privileged to be at Headingley when Australia won its first Test at the venue since 1964.
So, I have some hope that the Aussies can play out of their skins and be 1-0 up sometime on either Sunday or Monday night our time.
That said, we'll probably be 6-50 at lunch time this time tomorrow (me of little faith).

So Siddle gets the last fast bowlers guernsey. No Starc or Hazlewood in the team for the first time in I don't know how long. Great to see Wade finally rewarded for the weight of his runs. So now its all about getting through the tricky first session and putting some runs on the board. FIngers crossed

The broadcast deal for the Ashes is interesting. Seven +Foxtel have the rights to all cricket. Apart from the next two Ashes series which belongs to channel 9.Fox has offered CH9 a deal to televise the tests.And I CH9 has said NO.NO and No..Still salty about losing the cricket.

Same old shit from Australian batsmen in England for the last 15 years coming up.

As for the bowling fair dinkum what is Siddle doing in this side?

Eng luck has carried over the WC final....Warner should of reviewed....didn't and Eng bag a freebie....Uzzie gets a faint edge, Eng review and bag another wicket.....but true BH.....same old same old facing a moving red cherry.....up to Smith now to do what he does best and has done for the last 2-3 years.....funny how Aust has waited a a long time for this series to unleash on paper the big four quicks.....and Siddle gets a gig in his mid thirties.....no doubt play Siddle now and then fark him off for the rest of the series......

We have seen the Australian batting exposed this first day of the ashes series. Smith basically looks a class above everybody else and he will have to have a massive series if we are going to have any chance.
Absolutely dreadful shot by Paine given the circumstances. The problem for Australia is that he aint going to be dropped even if his batting becomes a liability.
The umpiring is almost as bad as the abject batting.

Seriously with Wade and Paine coming in at 6 & 7 that would have to be the longest tail in world cricket history.
I cannot believe they were sucked in to picking Wade as a batsman sheesh.
Who actually are the selectors outside Langer who I already know has no idea?

To be fair BH, Wade has done much better than anybody else in the last 12 months and if he fails at this level it is more indicative of the paucity of Australian batting talent at the moment.

it is bit similar to Richie Robinson 1977 -- they picked him because he topped the Shield averages.

The only thing worse than the Australian batting and selecting has been the putrid display of umpiring by a way past it Dar and the other bloke who is just not up to Test match cricket officiating.