The Ashes - 2010/11

Bring it on!

Not a great lead in, in India, for us Aussies. A little pounding of SL wouldn't go astray. That's only a T20 and 3 ODIs though.

For longer matches there's only Sheffield Shield matches left for those that get to play in them.

Comments?

Being a Brit, hard for me to comment on the Aussie domestic season and we know that India have always been a bit of a stumbling block for you guys so I, for one, am not reading too much into it.

I think we're going to arrive next month with a strong squad, but then I thought that prior to the 2006-7 series and look what happened.

The batting looks fairly evenly matched, I think, although we could do with KP having a few decent knocks. Strauss, Morgan and Trott will be the other key men for us.

On the bowling front, losing Anderson will be a body blow. A lot of English hopes will rest on Finn, who has enormous potential but isn't the finished article. As has been the case for a while with England, we're going to be relying heavily on Graeme Swann.

I also think there's a danger that, after his poor showing in the 2009 series in England, we'll underestimate Mitchell Johnson, which we do at our peril.

With only fifteen days to go, England's warm up match against WA went well, the one against SA starts tomorrow (I think) and then they have a final 4-day match against Aust-A.

Australia's lead in didn't go too well. Sri Lanka managed to win their first ever series in Australia; getting completely out of jail in the first ODI, and setting a world record 9th wicket partnership in the second ODI. We won the dead-rubber third ODI. Australian test players (and hopefuls) are back in their state squads for two first-class matches (Sheffield Shield) as their final warm-ups.

I personally am in the final stages of my cunning plan to infect several hundred cartons (crates) of Stella with laryngitis bugs and deliver them warm to the Barmy Army.

Your plan is flawed: they will drink ale.

Hey, beer is BEER even if warm :-)

They'll have to bring it with them then!

Plan B involves a radio controlled aeroplane with an aerosol dispersal system. We may have to put up with their vuvuzela-like mooing for the first couple of days of the first test, but after that it should be peaceful.

Honestly I think us Aussies are in a bit of trouble for the next few years at least. IMHO, once Ponting retires we dont have any captain material left in the team & I really cant see us sitting anywhere near the top for quite some time. Having said that, I dont mind so much, of course I like us to win, but for a while there it was almost a given that we would win most games in Aus & it got a bit boring. I really enjoyed that record breaking 9th wicket partnership by SL the other week, twas great to watch, even though we played so terribly...

As for the Ashes, we'll just have to wait & see, either way I just hope its not one sided!

Today's the day! All the best to all players and officials.

not a good start for England!

Last time we started with that Harmison wide. This time Strauss goes out second ball. I feel a little more comfortable now after twelve steady overs.

Grrr. Maybe as I feared, we English have been lulled into a false sense of security by spending the last year defeating weak opposition like Bangladesh and the Pakistanis. Even so, Brisbane is a fortress for the Aussies and one quality this England outfit do have is a bloody minded ability to cling on and fight. It's early days for the series and by no means over yet.

Just watched my first "hat trick" live (OK, only on TV, but in real time)
but WOW.
Has anyone ever seen a "double hat trick"?
First class cricket of course.

My late father was a member of Hampshire County Cricket Club and was at the County Ground on 29 June 1996 when Kevan James took four consecutive Indian wickets. The chap next to him in the pavilion (with whom he was doing the day's crosswords) was in the bar for the initial brace.

Our Australian friends seem very quiet. I think that I will go and crow on twitter.

Sad. So very sad. How did we come to this?

Four years ago when England were being whitewashed we found that by the time we got to Melbourne the locals were too sorry for us to gloat. I hope that I can be as gracious if England sews things up in Perth.

#16 Not sure I could be as magnanimous. After having followed England being on the receiving end of many thrashings at the hands of the Australians as I grew up, the fact that the last two series in England have been pretty even battles has been gratifying but once, just once, I'd like the Aussies to receive a pasting, just so they know how it felt to be an England fan for most of the 1990s Ashes series.