The 2023 Ashes series kicks off at Edgbaston on Friday night with Australia a strong bet against England.
Check out our full Ashes preview for all our futures tips, including most runs, most wickets, player of the series and series outcomes.
Head-to-Head
First of all, we can eliminate the draw as an outcome. This England team does not play draws. Each of their last 13 matches have provided a result. We could see some showers in the final few days but we’ll see more than enough cricket to find a winner.
The freshly crowned best Test team in the world Australia should be confident of a win in Birmingham.
As we discussed in our series preview, England’s ‘Bazball’ approach is yet to be tested against the best bowling attack in the world. We saw last summer against inferior Kiwi and South African line-ups that the Poms can be dismissed cheaply when Bazball goes wrong – they were dismissed for under 170 runs 4 times in 11 innings.
Faster, flatter wickets have been requested by Ben Stokes’ team to suit their aggressive style but more ‘Australian-like’ decks are hardly going to worry the visitors and Edgbaston has been anything but a fortress for England in recent years as they’ve lost two of their last three at the venue.
The home team’s bowling stocks are very underdone entering a five Test series. Their three best quicks in Broad, Anderson and Robinson will all play at Edgbaston but the latter two are both coming off injury and haven’t played any Test cricket since February. Moeen Ali has ‘unretired’ to play his first Test in almost two years but he averages 65 against the Aussies while Ben Stokes has only bowled 17 overs in his last ten innings due to his troublesome knee. Australia’s bowlers are all fit and firing with the exception of Josh Hazlewood, who may be eased into the series.
England have only won 2 of their last 16 matches against the Aussies and it took a Ben Stokes miracle at Headingly to win one of them. The visitors are the far superior team on paper and should start this Ashes series with a win.
Same Game Multi
Smithy averaged 110 on his last visit to England and whacked 142 and 144 in his two innings at Edgbaston.
Scott Boland’s relentless accuracy and excellent economy should frustrate the aggressive English batsmen and lead to three or more poles.
Value Bets
Root is far too short in this market given he averages just 32 in his last two series against Australia. Harry Brook is a star on the rise, averaging 81 from his first 11 innings. He is a real threat if he gets his eye in.
Steve Smith is the clear top pick here given his record at Edgbaston but Scott Boland is the value. The Victorian took 18 wickets in six innings at 9.55 in his debut series against the Poms in the last Ashes and he could be even more suited to English conditions.
