So Can England Now Join the Sporting Immortals?

So Can England Now Join the Sporting Immortals?

Test 1 of 5: Australia vs England

It’s almost against all the betting odds, isn’t it? That rhetorical question was posed by England captain Joe Root ahead of a warm-up game last week.

Root basically said England would be playing against a whole country in their own ‘backyard’ with virtually everyone in the ground doing everything to help the hosts. It is becoming increasingly rare for an English side to win an Ashes series in Australia and the sports betting options show that.

Asian Handicap has Australia priced @ 1.35 and England @ 3.04, while you can plump for a 1X2 bet Australia @ 1.65 and England @ 3.75.

The tourists know that in English conditions, the two countries have usually been well matched. However, ‘down under’, the home side have a superiority which is shown by the fact they have won three times as many tests since 1980 – 27 to England’s nine triumphs.

Indeed, in two of their last three series in Australia, it’s been an Aussie whitewash. As the late, great Len Hutton – one of the few England captains to win a home and away Ashes series – remarked: ‘In Australia the ball is harder, the pitches are harder and the people are harder’.

It makes life even more difficult for the England class of 2017 without a settled batting line-up, their catching fallible at best, while many of their pace bowlers are currently injured. The absence of Ben Stokes won’t help either.

Winning in Australia defines your life if you are an English cricketer; for Aussies, nothing is better than beating the ‘Poms’ as they so lovingly refer to England in the southern hemisphere. So let’s sit back and take in the action in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney – England’s happiest hunting ground – over the next six weeks and enjoy cricket’s oldest battle with a host of fresh faces.

Do you like this article? Do you want more? If so, click  to subscribe to our newsletter!