The Ashes

 Well the poms have picked their squad. Few surprises. I think most of their batsmen will like Australian pitches. It makes sense to have Pope as reserve WK as well.

I do think the spinners are a problem. Bashir is money for Jam out here whilst Jacks can bat his spinning is another matter however if pitches are similar to previous seasons then the spinners will not bowl much.

This brings us to pace bowlers.

Archer, Wood and Carse have all bowled above 90 mph BUT none of them have ever shown they can bowl for 5  successive tests particularly in the time period set aside for these ashes. They will cause problems for our batsmen who have shown weakness against pace bowling above 90 mph.

Both Atkinson and Tongue are unlikely to reach 90 mph. If you add in Stokes then he gets close to 90 mph but agaain does not reach 90 mph.

My guess they will start with Archer, Wood and Atkinson. This would make sense as both Archer and Atkinson bowl inswingers. Wood and Stokes bowl outswingers. It all makes sense for the first 30 0vers when a kookaburra ball swings. Stokes can bowl inspartinal long spells allowing Wood to bowl his quickest in short spells. Same goes for Atkinson although he is not inspirational.

I will only make two predictions for the first two tests. England wins in Perth but Australia win the day/nighter in Brivegas because they always do. they do play more day/nighters than any other nation!

One last observation. Harry Brook is vice captain making the heir apparent to Stokes when he retires ( after the Ashes in england???)

Whoopsy

One thing that worries me is that our bowling is an aging lineup. They have clearly lost pace and the poms will be faster than our bowlers. If they bowl like than are 25 rather than 35 they could get hit badly. They need to bowl line and length.