First Ashes Test. Edgbaston.

[Donny]

Starts tomorrow.

Australia v. England.

With Usman Khawaja confirmed to bat at first drop and James Pattnson in the XI, this looks to be the Aussie team.

Warner
Harris or Bancroft
Khawaja
Smith
Head or Wade
Labuschagne
Paine
Pattinson
Cummins
Starc
Lyon

Hazlewood and Siddle under consideration. Mitch Marsh could still get the #6 spot.

[Donny]

England squad: Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

[K]

Fairfax sound like they think it's Bancroft & Wade. No word on 3rd bowler (4th really), except they expect horses for courses.

Do the bookies have a market for how long a Test lasts? The complication is there may be three or four sessions rained out, so it may artificially look like the Test made it to day 4 (or 5??).

[Donny]

"Australia has not won at the venue since its innings-and-118-run thumping in the second Ashes Test of 2001, the same year the visitors last won the Ashes in England.

In the 18 years that have passed since that distant victory, Australia has played in 10 completed matches across all formats in Birmingham, losing nine and drawing once, a rain-affected match during the 2009 Ashes."

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/tim-paine-edgbaston-pitch-australia-england-birmingham-green-wicket/2019-07-31

[K]

ENGLAND XI:

Rory Burns, Jason Roy, Joe Root (c), Joe Denly, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

[K]

Pre-Test odds:

England 49%
Oz 38%
Draw 14%

And for the series, almost the same:

England 49%
Oz 37%
Draw 13%

[KenH]

Can't wait for this! C'mon the Aussies!!

[K]

I'm tempted to say that's the worst England Ashes batting lineup I've ever seen. They are relying on lower-order sloggers to bump up the total.

Unfortunately, Oz's is bad too. It's amazing that they're talking about Khawaja as if he's so important. He's done nothing of note in English conditions. In a respectable batting order, he'd be regarded as the weakest link.

It'll need deluges of rain for this to make it to five days. (That or modern ODI pitches.)

[Donny]

Damn !! No TV coverage for me.

I (wrongly) assumed it would be on Fox Cricket.

[Donny]

England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Rory Burns, 3 Joe Root (capt), 4 Joe Denly, 5 Jos Buttler, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Cameron Bancroft, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steve Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Matthew Wade, 7 Tim Paine (capt & wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 James Pattinson, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Peter Siddle.

[Donny]

No Archer. I thought he was a shoe-in.

[Donny]

Aha. Archer recovering from a side strain.

[Donny]

No Starc is a bit of a mystery.

Any idea why, K, Pies4, Jezza ?

[K]

It's just horses for courses.

They want some stability here, so Siddle has got that role.

e.g. Brettig:

'James Pattinson is guaranteed to play in the opening Ashes Test at Edgbaston and Peter Siddle is also strongly in contention, meaning Starc looks certain to miss out as he continues his transition from ODI lines and lengths to the demands of Test matches, while Hazlewood is also 50/50. Only Cummins is safe in the team of the three bowlers who dominated England in Australia in 2017-18. ...

"We've spoken about it to the bowlers. As JL [the coach Justin Langer] said, we're going to pick the team we think is going to win each Test match given the conditions we get when we arrive at those venues and the bowlers are across that," Paine said. "I think that's a great thing for our team - to have a really strong mix of fast bowlers who can all play in different conditions. But as we've said to the fast bowlers, it's actually a great thing for them as well because we can now prolong their careers for a few years." '

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27292598/australia-bargain-big-three-breakup-mitchell-starc-falls-behind

[K]

M. Taylor thinks they've deadened the pitch a bit because England's batting is so weak.