Will History repeat itself........

Will History repaeat itself again from Englands last Test match at Headingley, where they batted 1st and got knocked over for 203 in the 1st innings, and ended up losing the match by 10 wickets. As avid Ashes viewers would know by know, Australia have been carefully studying Englands matches against South Africa last year, and last year at this very same ground Englands batsmen struggled, they followed the ball a lot, and got caught out at Gully and in the Slips for most of their wickets. With this evidence im sure Ponting will play at least 4 frontline Fast Bowlers.

I wonder if England win the toss, will Strauss bat 1st..........

Selection Crisis

There have been a lot of rumours circling that even if Andrew FLintoff is fit, he will be rested for the Test at Headingley. From what i can gather it looks like Flintoff will not be playing tomorrow. The big question remains then who will replace him, now the BBCs Jonathan Agnew has said he thinks Jonathan Trott will be selected instead, for some reason i dont think that will happen, with all do respect to aggers, who most likely has more "inside knowledge", then me. I remember Geoff miller ( Chairman of Selectors ) saying if Flintoff wasnt fit then Harmison will come in for him , as they are like for like. Even though i dont tink they are like for like, i still think Harmison will come into play, which means Broad will be pushed up the order, even though this will leave Englands middle order vunerable, If theres no Flintoff then Harmison should play, end of.

I really do feel Alastair Cook is not ready for the top level of Test Cricket yet, you always here commentators talking about his technique, its always he cant keep his head still, he keeps dragging himself across the line, he chases the ball too much, i think its about time he got dropped and improved his game, i mean hes been waorking with one of Englands greatest batsmen, and a well renowned batting coach in Graham Gooch for a very long time now, so why hasnt he improved?

Maybe Trott should come in, he has scored a lot of runs this season, but he should come in for a batsmen, ideally Cook or Bopara.

Australia should bring in Stuart Clark, he has the best conditions which should suit his bowling at Leeds. I dont think they will risk Brett Lee just yet, they will probably save him for the last test match at the Oval, and he will most likely come in for the bowler with the least wickets, Mitchell Johnson perhaps...........

Brad Haddin should slot back into the XI, after recovering from a dislocated finger, so in Clark does come into play who will be dropped? I think it will most likely be Nathan Hauritz, as Headingley is a fast wicket, and im tipping Peter Siddle to shine in this match, as you get what you put into at Headingley, and nobody puts as much effort as he does.

Headingley Preview

I feel England have lost a big opportunity in not getting the result at Edgbaston, they had a chance and now the momentum is with Australia, England do blow hot and cold, and with the continiung concern with Flintoffs injury getting worse, i really do feel England will now find it difficult, it looks like they will be without Flintoff in this Test, now England without both Pietersen and Flintoff look very average.

Englands middle order tooks very very weak, even though i hate to admit it bopara is not a number 3 batsman, hes just too attacking, i feel hewould be better suited to bat at number 5 or 6, England need 2 push Collingwood up the order to shore up the middle order.

Australia look to be findin their feet, 6 of their batsmen have made centuries, Hilfenhaus is the leading wicket taker in this Ashes, and Johnson and Siddle are looking very sharp and seem to have found out what line and lengths to bowl in English conditions, aslo thier so called weak link, their spin option Nathan Hauritz has taken 10 wickets so far.

My prediction for this game is firstly a RESULT, Headlingley is known to get results, and even better fast results, and if Australia do the right thing in and bring in Stuart Clark they will have a great chance, so my prediction is a AUSTRALIA victory.

The Flintoff factor

The key player in this match will be Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. Freddie has got a great record against the aussies, and is extremely dangerous against left hand batsman, and Australia have got 3 left handers in katich, hussey and johnson. Lets not forget the last time Flintoff bowled at Edgbaston, it was against South Africa, and they couldnt pick Freddie at all, and his bowling to Jacques Kallis has World class. Look out for Flintoff to trouble the aussies once again.

Edgbaston Preview

England have got a great record at Edgbaston winning 22 of the 43 Tests staged and losing only eight, with 13 draws, including the historic match of 2005 when England won by just 2 runs. Its going to be very hard to force a result on this pitch, it has been a very slow wicket this year, a batsmens wicket where everybody apart from Ian bell have made runs!

It wasnt the biggest secret in cricket, everybody knew Ian bell was goin to be selected evn though his last three innings include a duck, 7 and 29, not really the best form going into a crucial Ashes test match, but what can you expect when Ashley giles is an England selector, he was bound to be biased towards bell afterall he is a director at Warwickshire aswell as a former player.

Im not sure how much cricket we are going to get this week, it looks like its going to be a very rainy week, and it doesnt look like were going to get much cricket today, maybe one session weather permitting. Theres has to be a twist in this series, afterall it is the Ashes

The Edgbaston factor

At Edgbaston 2005 the Ashes pendulum took a momentus swing towards England this happened when Glenn Mcgrath tripped over a cricket ball, he ended up twisting his ankle and missing a couple of matches and never looking like the bowler he was. He dominated the English batsmen at Lords............. no change there!

Fast forward to Edgbaston 2009 and England have received a serious blow to regaining the Ashes. Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out of the remainder of the series with an achilles injury. Pietersen had been struggling at Cardiff and was forced of the field several times at Lords, his injury has hampered his game to the limit that he couldnt run.

Will Pietersens absence prove as vital as Glenn Mcgraths, i think so, remember Australia were 1-0 up in the series before Mcgrath got injured as well...................

The Power of Twitter

Philip hughes has announced on his Twitter that he has been dropped for the Edgbaston Test, Ricky ponting is not going to be happy, this can only mean that the ausssies are bringing in shane watson, he will most likely be opening the batting, unless the aussies push hussey up the order, but i doubt t, because of the Flintoff factor,to be continued..............