I must admit that I have been thoroughly impressed with England this summer; it’s the first time in recent memory that a team has lived up to the hype. we thought india might be the team to take down Australia but that proved to be a false hope as they have become horrible over the past year.
England has sucked for the past 10 years but slowly, methodically, they have built a team to last, with outstanding talent at its foundation (Vaughn and the white man’s Afridi, Flintoff)…
I have never seen Australia so befuddled, it’s quite an amazing sight to see…game on!!!
True said and it will be very tough for Pakistan to even draw the home series I hope am wrong but watching Ashes its gonna be a very hard target for Pakistan to draw the Test. Pakistan may do good in the ODI but Test....Allah khair karay.
Yes, To be very honest about 2-3 yeats ago i stopped follwoing Ashes series becasue of ruthless Aussies but now England is not only showing spine but they are hitting back hard on Aussies !
The country really needed a Ashes triumph, or I really thought that cricket was going to die in the country, excluding the asians.
Watching test cricket has always been fun in England. Now it can be said, that the Ashes, the most important rivalry in sports is back, and with it being back, its brought the country back in the game too.
To be honest, I think England has some great potential within county too. This team is still young with players of the calibre, Flintoff, S. Jones, Harmison, Pieterson, Tremlett and Bell.
England will thrash Pakistan. They may have some trouble in the ODI's, but they really need to lose players like Solanki, Wharf, Anderson and a few more.
But anyways.. it will be good practice for Pakistan before India comes.
Its unfortunate for England that Football World Cup 2006 will hit the country when the home season starts again.
:k:
This English team has really proven itself. They have improved a lot, and young players are working hard. On the other Aus faced some injuries and bad selection decisions as well.
Against Pakistan it depends heavily. Eng will visit Pak as favorites. Akhter must be included and “senior” players must perform even if Akhter is playing. If PCB can ensure that, Pak has good chances against Eng in Tests and ODIs. With Younis and Asim Kamal (my favorite Test batsman in Pak squad), Pak has emerging stars in batting, too.
guys i think finally there is a team that match against australia. for the third time in the series england posted a score over 400 and australian batting getting under pressured and one man to destroy the australians tremendously is great allrounder flintoff who they consider is better version of botham and england in the fourth test at trent brigde man 477 with flintoff 102 and australia are 99/5 and i think for th first time after 8 ashes that have been with australia this is surely going in england's pocket. though i hate both teams because both are racist against aisan teams or any other team but i want australia to lose from any team and england has the potential to beat them.
yeah i agree that England team has improved immensely over last couple of years.
but aussies have gradually declined after Steve Waugh's retirement. Ponting hasn'nt got quality of leadership Steve had, plus youngsters for Australia are not performing, Micheal Clarke for me is the biggest dissapointed. On the other hand young England side is playing positive cricket. for me England's hard hitting batsmen (Flintoff, Pieterson, Jones) are making the difference..
australia are battling for their lives to save the fourth test match and are still short of 37 runs in second inning to go ahead and give target to england with 2 days left and 6 wickets in hand. they are for the first time in a situation to save the test match. for the first time after 1998 they have been in a follow on that shows how great they are in both oneday and test game bt its good that they are handling the pressure from the start of the ashes series so that they know what pressure really is good. keep up the good work england even though i hate this team also but want any team to beat australia.