Reasons why England CAN win the Ashes?

[Lawrenzini]

There's alot of negativity surrounding England's trip down under. However with odds of 4/1 I am quite tempted to have a punt. So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

[Harj]

FLintoff will get injured, allowing Strauss to rightly take the captaincy, he will win 1 test matches, Flintoff will return as vice captain, score a hundred and and take 5 wickets making it 2 tests up, with the rest being washed out.

Basically, Strauss needs to be captain.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Lawrenzini

So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

The Australians will all go down with food poisoning

Trescothick doesn't perform as well overseas, hasn't played cricket for a while and was out of form anyway.

Michael Vaughan our inspirational captain is absent.

Simon Jones who is made for Australian conditions is also absent.

Steve Harmison wouild like to forget about 2006

James Anderson hasn't played competitive cricket for over a year and neither Mahmood nor Plunkett are consistant enough.

If everyone in the England team play to their best abilities and the Australians play badly we are capable of winning but whilst that may happen in one test (usually the last one) I can't see it happening in every match.

I'd love to be proved wrong though

[miceri]

I'd like to think that the Aussies will be under a bit of home pressure to perform. But in reality I bet they are seriously chomping at the bit to blitz us into dust during the 1st test...

All those nice dusty hard wickets, and us with no premier fast bowler / bouncer...

[CFC1]

Agree with all Ian J's points - I can't see anything other than a whitewash, I'm afraid.
Hate to admit it, but England haven't a hope!

[leej]

Originally Posted by Lawrenzini

So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

Warne and Lee will tread on a cricket ball during warm up

Looking back at last summer the reason England failed to beat Sri Lanka was Murrali. Whereas Pakistan were beaten as they hadn't got a world class spinner.

Kevin Pieterson (mainly) and co will hopefully destroy Shane Warne, with him out of the equation then England have a good chance of victory.

[DJT75]

Originally Posted by CFC1

I can't see anything other than a whitewash(

That's where my money's gone.

[Ian J]

According to the BBC today there are doubts over Flintoff's fitness to bowl so we may go in with five bowlers which will leave us with an unbalanced side as well as an awfully long tail.

[Johnny Thunder]

The Aussie side is OLD. The likes of Warne and Mcgrath will get injuries.
We will retain the Ashes.

[Ian J]

It was noticeable in 2005 how much worse the Aussie side was without McGrath so hopefully he will trip on another ball in the warm ups and rule himself out of a couple of the games.

[Ian J]

England XI suffer heavy defeat

Shaun Tait stormed into the first Test calculations with a withering fast bowling performance as England XI succumbed to a 166-run defeat in their opening Ashes tour match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.

England XI were hammered for a record 347 for five off 50 overs by a Prime Minister's XI and in reply they were skittled for just 181 off 38.4 overs. It was a worrying performance with the first of the five Ashes Tests, in Brisbane, just 13 days away.

The rest of the article here makes very worrying reading too.

[NWhiteley]

After watching the PM eleven v England game live last night, i just cant see how we can win any test against the Aussies this summer, let alone the series. With the exception of Freddies bowling, they were awful.

[rio1981]

Originally Posted by Ian J

The rest of the article here makes very worrying reading too.

Watched a little bit of it last night, and some highlights this morning - I just hope it's a case of getting the rust off before the real games begin, but this kind of spanking isn't really the way to prepare, is it?

Too many cases of poor shot selection in terms of batting, at a time when you need some decent time in the middle we miss out on batting for nearly 12 overs out of the 50? I just hope this truly is the one-day form, and not test match form...

[Ian J]

Oh bugger, I didn't know that it was on TV although it doesn't look as if it were worth watching anyway.

I wonder if that means Sean Tait has booked his berth in the Test team. I remember his one game in the Ashes 2005 series as he was quite a handful and it will take a brave and determined man to stand up against him and Brett Lee bowling in tandem.

[Tsunami]

Luck & lots of it.