Ashes 1st Test
Thursday – August 1st
Sky Sports

After a bizarre four-day Test match success against Ireland last week, England will march into the opening Test of the Ashes 2019 on Thursday. With question marks, big ones at that, over England’s batting, how will they handle the pressure?

Regardless of their wobbles in the Test arena, England are going as favourites against their old foes in this opening fixture.

Can England take the first step forward in trying to get the Ashes back? The odds on England to beat Australia in the 1st Ashes Test are 10/11 with leading bookmakers.

2017/18 Ashes Series Review

Australia collected a 4-0 series win in the 2017/18 Ashes series. It was pretty much a non-contest on that occasion, so dominant were the hosts. England were just smashed in the opening Test of the series, losing by 10 wickets. Australia raced away with a 120 run win in the second Test and the series was done and dusted at the WACA in the third fixture. Australia demolished a battered and bruised England by an innings and 41 runs.

So after three matches, the Ashes, as a contest, were over. England fought to a draw in the fourth game, but were then embarrassed by another innings defeat in the final Test. It was nothing short of a miserable series from the English. Australia’s captain Steve Smith was the player of the series.

That leaves England with 33 Ashes series wins against 32 from Australia.  Leading bookmakers have England at  10/11 odds to win the Ashes 2019, with Australia at 7/4.

2019 Test Dates

1st Test – August 1-5 at Edgbaston
2nd Test – August 14-18 Lord’s
3rd Test – August 22-26 at Headingly
4th Test – September 4-8 at Old Trafford
5th Test – September 12-16 at The Oval

First Test Preview

Edgbaston is the scene for the opening Test of the 2019 Ashes. The first ball of the day is due to be bowled at 10:55 am. The last time that England played host to Australia at Edgbaston was in the 2015 Ashes Series. Australia had won the toss and elected to bat in Birmingham.

However, England skittled them out for just 136 runs and that set the hosts up for a comfortable win. England went on to take an eight-wicket victory in that match, to take a 2-1 lead in the series. At Edgbaston against Australia in all previous Test Matches there, England are W16 L3 D5 .

England Predictions

England warmed up for the Ashes with a strange home Test against Ireland. England’s batting collapsed to 85 all out on the first day, but then they fought back to end up winning by 138 runs. England bowled out Ireland for just 38 on day three to seal the match. But there are big questions about England’s batting.

That was the fourth time in Test action since 2016 that they had lost all 10 wickets in a single innings. They looked a bit clueless against a ball which was moving around. Bowler Stuart Leach was their top scorer in the match with 92 from their second innings. Jason Roy, who was part of the World Cup-winning team recently had a great second inning in the match and is at 9/2 with big bookmakers to top score for England in the first Test.

There is a chance that Jofra Archer could be fit enough to get himself a Test debut. He was England’s top bowler at the World Cup but had a side problem injury in the tournament. He has been called up, but it remains to be seen if England push him into action in Birmingham. Chris Woakes is at 10/3 with leading bookies to be England’s top bowler in the 1st Test. England do at least seem to have a competitive fight going on in the pace-attack department. Can they hold it together as a batting unit though?

Australia Predictions

Steve Smith was their guiding light at the World Cup and he is such a phenomenal player. The captain, who was a player of the series in the last Ashes, is joint 11/4 favourite alongside David Warner to top score for the Australians in the opening Test of the Ashes 2019. That will be the first time that those two have played together since their bans for the ball-tampering scandal last year.

Opener Cameron Bancroft was also caught up in that mess, but he makes his return to the national squad. The three of them are likely to get some heavy stick from the English crowds. It was Bancroft who was caught with sandpaper in his trousers against South Africa in 2018 after being directed by Smith and Warner to tamper with the ball.

Tim Paine is the Australian captain, as Smith is banned from the role. The tourists have the batting power to make this a pretty tight series. But the real threat from the Australians could be with the ball in hand. They have superb pace attack in their squad. The leader there is, of course, the irrepressible Mitchell Starc. Starc is 11/4 to be their best bowler in this opening test. Australia are only taking one front-line spin bowler into action with them, that being Nathan Lyon.

Ashes 2019 Squads

Australia Ashes squad: Tim Paine (capt), Cameron Bancroft, Patrick Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

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

2019-21 ICC World Test Championship

All of the matches in this Ashes Series count towards the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship. What’s that you may ask? From August 1st 2019 through to June 2021, nine of the twelve Test nations will take part in this special series, with a final to come in June 2021 (in England). Each of the participating nations will each play a Test series against six of the other nations during the time frame of this competition (three home and three away).

Those Tests won’t all be five-day affairs, so not all teams are going to be playing the same amount of matches. So, depending on how many days a series will be played over, will determine how many points are picked up for winning a match within that series. There is a total of 120 on offer per series (so, for example, winning a match in a 4-day Series rewards 30 points).

The teams taking part in this area Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. That means Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe are not taking part. India and Pakistan won’t be playing with each other. Just for reference, England’s home Test Series in this World Test Champions are against Australia (5 matches), Pakistan (3 matches), West Indies (3 matches). Their away games are in India (5 matches), South Africa (4 matches) and Sri Lanka (2 matches)

Ashes 2019 Predictions

In the last decade, England have played eight Test matches at Edgbaston and they have won six of them, drawing the other two. In that same span, they are W1 D1 against Australia there. So this is a ground where they do seem to flourish. Now to that game against Ireland on what was a really strange pitch that was slow, but offered so much for the bowlers.

England were on a high of having just won the world cup. In their line up against Ireland, half of the team came from that successful World Cup squad. It’s not too unreasonable to suspect that there has to be a little adjustment period needed. Players need time to switch up to a different way of thinking out there at the crease. Switching formats from the rapid-scoring ODI format to the patient approach of Tests can’t be that easy. England weren’t at their strongest against Ireland either in terms of personnel.

But no question, the averages of England’s top batsmen have dropped over the last couple of years. It doesn’t look certain as to exactly what their lineup should be. You don’t doubt Australia’s top order as much as you do England’s. This is an Australian side who are competitive and only need a drawn series to hang on to the Ashes title.

But even with that said, on home soil in Birmingham, it has to be England that gets backed. They do have better, well-rounded depth in the team and if a couple of players click at the top of the order to steady the ship, that’s all they need to get going. Expect drama.