Cricket's oldest rivalry is back again, its ASHES 2021: Test -1

Years of wait, all set to over with the first Ashes test set to begin on 8th December 2021 in Brisbane. A lot happened after the T20 world cup and before Ashes preparations: Tim Paine’s resignation to Anderson being ruled out of the first test owing to injury recovery.

Australia is all set to begin this new era under the captaincy of Pat Cummins. They had already won the 2017-18 edition at home by 4-0, after which the 2019 Ashes ended in a 2-2 draw on English soil. With Australia and England ranked 3rd and 4th in ICC ranking, both the teams have very different amounts of plays this year. Australia has played one four-Test series since January 2020, which they lost at home against India, and have not played overseas since the 2019 Ashes. England, meanwhile, is about to play in their fifth series of the calendar year, having played six Tests in Sri Lanka and India and six at home against New Zealand and India again, but have won just four of those 12.

While Joe Root has been in his form, Anderson misses due to injury, and Ben Stokes form remains a question as he hasn’t played a red-ball game since March. Also, England has lost 9 of their last 10 matches in Australia.

Playing XI (Australia): David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Playing XI (England): Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad/Jack Leach