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Featured Sport News

Ashes wait almost over

Author: Brandon Barker
Date: 08/07/2009

Familiar foes will resume their rivalry in unfamiliar surroundings when the Ashes series gets underway in Cardiff on Wednesday.

England and Australia will renew hostilities in what has been billed as the highlight of the sporting summer so far, but traditional grounds like Lord's, The Oval, Headingley and Edgbaston will all have to wait their turn to host games in the five-Test series.

The England & Wales Cricket Board have selected Sophia Gardens - or the Swalec Stadium - as a surprise choice for the first Test and the selection could backfire badly if the experts are to be believed.

Home advantage is key in any Ashes series - England won the last on home soil in 2005 while Australia handed down a 5-0 whitewash Down Under two years ago - but this is a step into the unknown by the ECB.

The consensus of opinion is that the Cardiff pitch will offer plenty to the spinners, but the truth is no one is 100 per cent certain what will happen.

England then are hardly starting off on the strongest of footings and team selection on the morning of the first Test when the conditions have been assessed is likely to be the key to victory.

Spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar may both be included in the England line-up at the expense of a seamer which could be an advantage over marginal online betting favourites Australia as they only have one of their own in Nathan Hauritz.

The absence of Brett Lee with a rib injury is also a major blow for the Baggy Greens as the experienced paceman - one of the few survivors from the 2005 series - had looked in good form during two warm-up games.

Lee is struggling to be fit for the second Test at Lord's which starts on July 16 with an injury that has echoes of the ankle problem suffered by Glenn McGrath four years ago which prevented the then star paceman from playing a full part in the series.

England have no such problems as Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen appear to have overcome knee and Achilles injures and the home side are heading into the series with a full-strength squad.

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As with any Ashes series the key session could be the first on day one with both sides desperate to set the tone for the rest of the summer.

Both captains - Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting - will be hoping to win a potentially vital toss and gain the upper-hand in a series which could go right to the wire.

Ashes fever gripped the nation in 2005 as two evenly-matched teams traded blows in a series which is now regarded as one of the greatest in the history of Test cricket.

This one might just follow in the same vein.

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