The England cricket team begin a five-match One-Day International series against Australia at Lord’s on Friday and they will be expecting a bigger challenge than that laid down by the West Indies.
The bookmakers agree, having made both sides 10/11 to win the series – and that is despite an England player scoring a century in their last six completed ODIs.
Australia, as outlined by Peter Such below, are indeed a team in transition but can never be underestimated and with David Warner and Brett Lee looking in ominous form, it could be a fascinating series.
England are essentially unchanged. Although they made changes for the final ODI against the West Indies, resting three of their frontline bowlers, the game was washed out, so it is as you were.
There was a small possibility that Australia would go on strike and not take part in this tour. Fortunately the only strikes we will be talking about will be those registered by players’ bats and the balls onto the stumps.
There has been some adverse reaction to the series taking place at all, with a series of ODIs seen as unnecessary by some, particularly with the much-anticipated England-South Africa Test series also looming on the horizon. Neither side will be worried about that and will be firmly concentrating on the here and now.
We will be offering our thoughts during a Mr Predictor later this week but what do you think will be the outcome? Such thinks it will be a tough series for England, although they beat Australia when they were over here in 2010. Is a repeat performance on the cards?
