Seventeen months on from their latest winless tour of Australia (it is now 12 years since they last won a Test Down Under), England will begin their quest to regain the Ashes for the first time since 2017. Ben Stokes’ side have an awful lot going for them, winning 10 of their first 12 Tests under his captaincy and also enjoy a superior record in the last five home series against their most venerable opponent, four of which were won and the last, in 2019, drawn.
Brendon McCullum believes his style of attacking cricket will win the Ashes and is therefore firm in his support for Zak Crawley to open the batting, despite his run of poor form.
Crawley averaged just 29.3 across five Tests in Pakistan and New Zealand but his job is to attack the new ball and while England are winning they will wait for him to come off again.
“Zak is one of those players who is going to be inconsistent because of the role he is asked to perform,” McCullum said. “Our team is set up at the top of the order for Zak to play like that.
“The Australians, from my conversations with Ricky Ponting, respect him for the instinct and power he has at the top of the order and how destructive he can be.”
Ashes fixtures and full schedule
As usual there will be two Tests in London, at Lord’s and the Oval, and the series will start at Edgbaston, the England players’ favourite ground despite the so-called home ‘fortress’ being breached by Australian victory in 2019. Following the template of four years ago, the other two Tests are scheduled for white rose and red, at Headingley and Old Trafford, Trent Bridge missing out again.
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First Test, Edgbaston, Birmingham June 16-20
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Second Test, Lord’s, London June 28-July 2
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Third Test, Headingley, Leeds July 6-10
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Fourth Test, Old Trafford, Manchester July 19-23
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Fifth Test, The Oval, London, July 27-31
What time does each Test match start?
All five Tests are designated ‘day’ matches, commencing at 11am BST and each day’s play is scheduled to last until 6pm although time can be made up to 6.30pm, if no breaks in play, to facilitate 90 overs. Lunch will be at 1pm and last for 40 minutes and tea at 3.40pm for 20 minutes.
What is England’s record in the Ashes at each ground?
What TV channel is it on? How can I watch in the UK?
Sky has the rights for domestic Tests and will broadcast all five matches exclusively live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event.
The BBC has secondary rights for the highlights package and, if previous series are anything to go by, will show them on BBC2 at 7pm.
The Corporation also has the radio rights for domestic Tests and will feature ball-by-ball coverage (unless you are listening on longwave during the shipping forecast) on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, Radio 4 LW and via the BBC Sounds app.
Telegraph Sport will also be bringing you live coverage of every over throughout the series.
What’s the recent history of The Ashes?
After losing the first Ashes of the 21st Century 4-1 on Steve Waugh’s last tour here, England won back the Ashes in memorable style in 2005, regained them in 2009, both times by margins of 2-1, retained them 3-0 in 2013, won them back by 3-2 in 2015 and rallied to square the series 2-2 four years ago even though they were unable to prevent the holders preserving their possession of the urn.
In the 1980s and 1990s England’s home Ashes series were elongated to encompass six Tests but since the conclusion of Australia’s 1997 tour they have been wisely reduced to five and that remains the format this time around. There is one significant and controversial difference, however. Because of the 50-over World Cup in October which England will begin as defending champions, and the desire of the England and Wales Cricket Board to give its Hundred competition an August showcase, the marquee Test series will take part before high summer and only the final Test will be held after the state schools break up for the long holiday.
Who are in the squads?
That will not be known until mid May for Australia and, as is normal for the home side, roughly a week before the first Test starts on June 16.
After a 3-0 series victory in Pakistan and a 1-1 draw in New Zealand, England’s only remaining Test before The Ashes is against Ireland in early June. Australia, meanwhile, played four Tests in India during February and March (losing 2-1).
The majority of both squads will be filled by those who served both sides so well in Test cricket in 2022, plus a few on the fringes, namely:
England
Ben Stokes (captain), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes, Ollie Robinson, Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed, Mark Wood and hopefully bolstered by the longed-for returns of Jofra Archer, Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood plus possibly, at home, Chris Woakes.
Australia
Pat Cummins (captain), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Marcus Harris, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Hilton Cartwright, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann and Ashton Agar.
What is our prediction?
There have been merely two draws in 13 Tests in England following the Covid summer of 2020 and none in the last 10, writes Rob Bagchi. In 2015 every Test yielded a positive result and it would be fair to hazard that with good weather, England’s aggressive tactics, Australia’s brilliant attack, a more durable batch of Dukes balls and a home Ashes swansong for Messrs Broad and Anderson (84 and 44 Ashes wickets in England respectively, though Anderson managed only four overs in 2019), that all five Tests will end with a victor. England’s excellent home record of late and their refreshing approach persuades this observer to plump for a repeat of 2015 in terms of series result but with closer matches: England 3-2 Australia.
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