England will lock horns with Australia in the fifth and final Ashes Test match at the Kennington Oval, London from Thursday onwards. Four years ago, the Ashes stood with a similar scoreline of 2-1 moving into the fifth Test at London. England had won that game by 135 runs to level the series but Australia had retained the Ashes.
Once again, the Aussies have retained the urn after rain helped the visitors in getting out of the jail in the fourth Test match at Old Trafford, Manchester. England thoroughly dominated the fourth Test but at the end, they could not get the result they wanted because of rain.
Zak Crawley played the best knock of the series, scoring a magnificent knock of 189 runs off just 182 balls as the England opener batted at his absolute best. Furthermore, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root scored 99* and 84 runs respectively for the home team.
On the other hand, Australia would have been disappointed with their first innings display after they were skittled out for only 317 runs. A lot of batters got off to promising starts but none of them could go on to make a substantial score.
However, Marnus Labuschagne finally scored a fine knock of 111 runs in the second innings and it must have added a shot in his arm. But David Warner’s poor form remains a concern for Australia.
Australia will be looking to win the Ashes for the first time in English condition since 2001.
Match Prediction: With momentum on their side, England will start as favorites against Australia.
England squad
Ben Stokes (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
Australia is yet to confirm their fifth Test match squad.
Australia’s squad for fourth Test was as follows: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson.
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