After “getting away” with a draw in Manchester, Australia will be more motivated to win the remaining tests of the series in England even if they already have the Ashes in their possession.
Ashes-holders Australia has landed in London for the last match of the series, which will take place at The Oval on Thursday. Despite England’s dominance in the fourth test match at Old Trafford, the match finished in a stalemate due to rain, which allowed Australia to capture the urn and take a 2-1 lead in the series.
The same thing happened in 2019, when Australia had a 2-1 lead against England, but England came back to win at The Oval and even the series at 2-2.
As they attempt to put an end to Australia’s 22-year winless streak in the Ashes series played in England, the group captained by Pat Cummins, which includes numerous players who were on that previous tour, is resolute in its goal to prevent a similar performance.
There is a possibility that Australia would return the specialist spinner Todd Murphy, who was left out of the assault that scored 592 runs at Old Trafford and included Zak Crawley’s 189 runs in that total.
It has been less than two months since off-spinner Nathan Lyon contributed to Australia’s triumph at The Oval in the final of the World Test Championship against India by bowling Australia to a win with his four wickets for forty-one runs in the second innings.
Mitchell Marsh, the all-rounder who just returned to Test cricket after a four-year sabbatical with a hundred in England’s triumph in the third Test at Headingley, is reportedly dealing with “soreness,” while Mitchell Starc, the fast bowler, has a shoulder injury. Both of these issues have been reported by Mitchell Starc.
As a consequence of this, fellow paceman Michael Neser has a chance to participate in the series for the first time after having a strong run with Glamorgan in the English County Championship.
On the other hand, England did not make any changes to their lineup for the meeting on Wednesday.
James Anderson, who is 40 years old and a fast bowler, has kept his spot in the team despite the fact that he has taken just four wickets in the three matches that have been played so far in the series.
In his column for The Telegraph that was published on Tuesday, Anderson said that he does not have “any thoughts about retirement.”
The fast bowler Stuart Broad, who took his 600th test wicket when he removed Australian Travis Head in the fourth test, will play in the fifth match of the series. Broad has taken 600 test wickets in his career.
With their self-proclaimed ambition to “save” the Test format, England have on occasion unwittingly irritated the rest of the cricket world. By making it appear as though their victories are something to be cherished and any failures don’t matter as long as the audience is amused, England have created this impression.
The fact that England batsman Harry Brook said on Tuesday that “if we can win this week, it almost makes it a moral victory,” is not going to convince anybody to alter their mind.
However, since England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum joined forces in the previous year, England’s aggressive “Bazball” style has generated 12 victories out of a total of 17 Test matches.
In this series, Stokes was arguably too bold when least required by declaring on the opening day of the first Test at Edgbaston before England had scored 400 in a match that Australia eventually won by two wickets and insufficiently bold by not declaring at Old Trafford in a match that was forecast to be interrupted severely by rain. In this match, Australia eventually won by two wickets.
The all-rounder said after the washout in Manchester that “as much as I would love to be an Ashes-winning captain, I want this to be a legacy team.” Despite the fact that he did not seem to be very worried, the statement was made. People will always speak about us, no matter what the outcome of the series is.