Ashes - Dean Jones: England have no chance

Eurosport - Fri, 03 Jul 09:45:00 2009

In his first blog for Eurosport-Yahoo!, Australia great Dean Jones delivers a reality check to England fans ahead of the Ashes.

Dean Jones - 0

Everybody in England seems convinced the Ashes will be close. There is a real groundswell of belief that they can repeat their 2005 series win against Australia.

It's important to point a couple of things out. First of all, you are fifth in the Test rankings. In the last four years you have only won series against Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies.

You have got a new captain and disciplinary problems within the team. Your strike bowlers struggle to take wickets and your spinners are not that good - do you really think they can take 20 wickets in a match?

England's top order batting is good, I rate it. But the bottom half of the batting is not going to produce many runs, it is nowhere near as good as the Australians.

However good your main batsmen are, at some point you're going to be 80/5 and that's when you need a contribution from the lower-order players. England won't get that.

I'm honestly trying to think why anybody would tip England to win this series.

Key players - England: Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen (pictured) are both really important and need to be on song. They are England's major players, but there are injury question-marks over both players and you have to be 100 per cent fit when taking on the Aussies.

Elsewhere in the team, it is time for James Anderson to get rid of the word 'potential' when people talk about him. Stuart Broad is still fairly early in his apprenticeship but it will be interesting to see how he goes. If he is anything like his dad Chris, I expect him to come in snarling at the Aussies.

Key players - Australia: Mitchell Johnson is the number one, he is a serious bowler. Look at how he roughed up the South Africans and then smacked them about the park with the bat. It was like watching a rerun of the West Indies in the 80s.

Historically, left-arm bowlers do not do especially well in England but if you have the quality it shouldn't matter. Wasim Akram certainly did OK.

Peter Siddle and Stuart Clark will do very well, they won't get smacked about or lose control. Batsmen can set up a Test match, but it is the bowlers who win it, and those three are the ones who will see Australia home in the Ashes.

Series prediction: Cardiff is England's best chance of a victory as long as they bat first, because my sources tell me the pitch just won't last five days. But on the better pitches like Birmingham and Lord's, you need good bowlers who can perform under pressure. I don't see how England will bowl Australia out twice.

If England win the toss at Cardiff they will lose the series three-one. Otherwise, it will be four-zip to the Aussies.

Dean Jones / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 12 of 32

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  1. There is a god, Bell out first ball, bet he gets picked­ !!!

    From kestephenson, on Thu 2 Jul 3:37PM

  2. Don't you just love this stuff! Ashes fever is well­ and truly upon us and the size of the Aussie confidence­ is surpassed only by its ego. Jostling for position,­ one upmanship, let the sledging commence and battle­ begin! Head to head, nation v nation, England v­ Arsetralia. You may have stuffed us 5-0 but we are a­ proud and mighty nation who hail from the land of the­ Eng. From which land does the Arsetralian hail I­ wonder...
    Lions 172/2 Bellout for a golden .... ooops!

    From nocohere, on Thu 2 Jul 3:36PM

  3. Lions on 168 for none
    Denly and Moore going well­ against probably 4 of the main Aussie attack. Not bad­ eh ?? But neither will get picked
    Harmison looked like­ he might one day become a good bowler, but he won't­ get picked either
    Pietersen gets one run against a­ county side and he will of course get picked.
    I only­ hope Bell doesn't get a decent score
    Funny old­ game

    From kestephenson, on Thu 2 Jul 3:25PM

  4. At the moment England's reserve squad are 144 for 0­ against this fearsome Aussie attack. Meanwhile­ England's toothless pie chuckers have skittled out­ the opposition for 102. Methinks Mr Jones may be just a­ tad overconfident.

    Oh, and having seen Nathan Hauritz­ bowl, he really does look as awesome as his first class­ bowling average of 46.7 suggests.

    From Bobito, on Thu 2 Jul 3:10PM

  5. Why are these Aussies so over the top . Sure I would­ expect him to believe his team will win , but if he is­ going to blog make him be realistic and not just trying­ to provoke
    I think Aussies will just about win , but­ they are no great shakes either just now . As for spin­ bowling then where is the Aussie spinner ??? England­ have two spinners who are capable , if not actually top­ notch . But how many Warners and Muralis have we got .­ My main gripe is that England seem to have been trained­ in media contact by Labour spin doctors and they­ constantly feed out anything from the downright obvious­ to total nonsense

    From W, on Thu 2 Jul 2:06PM

  6. same old has been aussie load mouths...talking s**t­ again.
    but then again who is dean jones???? if he`s the­ Australia great then i assume that the real decent­ players are working for sky!!!!

    From tulip.design, on Thu 2 Jul 1:37PM

  7. Deano, you might want to check the England XI score­ against Warwickshire, too - not exactly struggling to­ take wickets there, are they!

    Few runs from the lower­ order? With a 7-8-9 of Flintoff, Broad and Swann­ there's plenty of depth in the batting.

    I think­ you may have seriously underestimated this England­ side, in much the same way England underestimated the­ Aussie Team you played in back in '89 - and they­ didn't do too badly!

    I think this is going to be a­ fascinating series, could go right down to the wire.

    From vllles, on Thu 2 Jul 1:37PM

  8. ur sure ur dean jones and not shane warne­ ??????????????????????

    From neilmead, on Thu 2 Jul 1:28PM

  9. Lol- never one to talk up the oppositions chances are­ they? We'll see.

    From markrose260, on Thu 2 Jul 1:28PM

  10. Hope you like Humble Pie Dean, because at the end of­ the series I think there might be a healthy portion for­ you.

    From Steve, on Thu 2 Jul 1:20PM

  11. Maybe Dean should check the score against England Lions­ today not exactly flying are thery??

    From mig.foster, on Thu 2 Jul 1:20PM

  12. Bravado par excellence!

    From cameron w, on Thu 2 Jul 12:59PM
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