The Ashes - Preview & Key Battles

Australia come into the 2015 Ashes series as strong favourites, but aspects of England's performances against New Zealand suggest that this series will certainly not be as one-sided as the last, which saw Australia win 5-0 down under. England will hope to make the most of home advantage, and will look to key men such as Jimmy Anderson and Joe Root to shine when they need it most. Anderson will need to give the ball as much chance as possible to swing so he will be looking to pitch the ball as full as possible from the start, challenging the footwork of the Australian batsmen. The Aussies will look to Starc to bowl in a similar fashion, which creates an interesting battle between the bowlers. 

Then in these bowling match-ups we look to Stuart Broad vs Mitchell Johnson, two bowlers that can play to the highest standard, but it all depends on their confidence, it wasn't that long ago that Mitchell Johnson had the Barmy Army singing and cheering every time his name was announced.  Then we see the two new fast bowlers playing in their first Ashes series, Mark Wood and Josh Hazlewood, Both have shown that they have the ability to trouble world-class batsmen, but are inexperienced at this level of the game. England will need to capitalise on home advantage to win these key battles, but I feel that Josh Hazlewood will have more of an impact on this series than Mark Wood. However, if Wood can get the reverse swing going, we could be witnessing another Simon Jones performance, although that is fairly optimistic.

Both sets of bowlers face big tasks ahead of them when it comes to taking the wickets of batsmen who have hit some seriously brilliant form. For England, their attention turns to the best batsman in the world Steve Smith, whilst that Australians will be wary of Joe Root, who over this past year has really asserted himself on the international stage. Nobody will be surprised if both of these batsmen finish as top run scorers for each side. If either of these two batsmen fall early, the confidence of the batting side will be drastically knocked, and they are the key wickets to take, and the bowlers will certainly have them in their sights. 

There are other batsmen of course on each side, the destructive David Warner and the newly in-form Alistair Cook spring to mind immediately, with guys such as Michael Clarke and Eoin Morgan more than capable of posting very high scores for their sides. With the Ashes being a much more psychological battle than any other series in cricket, every player will look to outperform their opposite number, and rise above any mind games. 

One match-up that will be important is the battle of the spinners, and whilst unlikely to decide any of the test matches is important as both teams are quite weak in this department. Both Moeen Ali and Nathan Lyon will be under a lot of pressure, but need to play a quiet role, picking up maidens and taking the odd wicket whilst the fast bowlers rest. Lyon bowled 22 overs for 136 runs in the first innings of Australia's match against Essex, whist Ali has only played 11 tests and is still inexperienced. They need to be managed carefully, or they could give the impressive batsmen a strong platform to develop from and post big totals. 

England will certainly need to improve on their fielding that they displayed against the New Zealand side, and will have to raise their catching game to match that of the Australians. If they can, this will be a close fought series, tough to call, but we will give it our best shot.

Prediction: Australia to retain the Ashes, either a 2-1 victory or 2-2 tie. A lot depends on who can take confidence from the first test match in Cardiff, which I feel will end in a draw, but Australia have been a much better side than England over the past few years, and although England have gained confidence from the New Zealand, it won't be enough to win the Ashes this year. This will be a thrilling series to watch though, complete with brilliant individual performances, a fantastic atmosphere and intriguing personal battles, although hopefully they will remain on the pitch this year... looking at you David Warner.