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Ashes 2017:The clash of the Titans

The most awaited test series of the year,Ashes is back with Australia and England battling one more time.This blog about the team analysis of both the teams and who stands a better chance this time.


This year's Ashes series is a very different contest all together.Both the teams have a bunch of new players and debutants.This makes the series even more interesting.Talking about the visitors i.e England,the whole batting line up revolves aroung two players Alaister Cook and Joe Root.The whole team is a lot more dependant on these two players.The top order of England having the likes of  Mark Stoneman,David Malan,James Vince is difficult to predict as these players don't have much experience.But the strength lies in the lower middle order of England where there is Moeen Ali,Jonny Bairstow.Both these players have a decent average of 35+.But it would be intersting to see how Moeen Ali plays in the fast and bouncy pitches of Australia.He got exposed to short balls when England were playing against India.The bowling unit of England looks good.James Anderson,Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes will surely be a lethal bowling attack.But they would surely be missing Ben Stokes and Steve Finn in Australia.Overall I feel their team is very balanced but yes one has to admit that their batting unit depends a lot on the shoulders of Cook and Root.Hence if the Australians are able to keep these two batsman silent,then the England team will surely face problems.
Talking about the Australian team David Warner and Steve Smith are the stars of the batting line up.Similar to England team their batting line up also revolves around these two players,but it is just that they have more experience.At the top they have Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja.Usman Khwaja is a good player and has a series to prove himself.In the middle order they have brought back Shaun Marsh  and Tim Paine in place of Mathew Wade.Marsh's experience will surely be helpful for the Australian team.Their bowling attack is very strong with Mitchell Starc,Pat Cummins and Josh Hazzlewood leading the charge.Amoungst spinners Nathan Lyon may be useful in the bqouncqy pitches.
Finally I believe that this years Ashes is more of an Underdog Ashes as the players a re relatively new.But if a team wants to win the Ashes someone has to stand tall and deliver.It was Mitchell Johnson last time,lets see who makes his mark this time.The past record says that both these teams have won 32 times each.This shows the level of competition between the teams.If the venue would have been a neutral venue like South Africa,I would have gone with England because of the balance in their side but since they will be playing in Australia,I believe the Australians have a slight advantage of playing on their home soil.Hence my pick would be Australia.

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