Captain Cummins to help Aussies claim the Ashes

A second heavy loss means it's now 21 defeats in the last 27 matches for England in Australia, and another one in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne will see the Aussies win this Ashes series. 

England struggling for positives

Two Tests down and two chastening defeats for England’s beleaguered Ashes side, who already look every bit a squad destined for another 5-0 whitewash.

It was a different ground and a different type of match, but the day-night Test in Adelaide was a familiar story – as Australia piled up the first innings runs and England just folded in response.

The returning James Anderson and Stuart Broad couldn’t take 20 wickets, and aside from a ray of hope from Joe Root and Dawid Malan the batting line-up again crumbled.

And it’s hard to see where England go from here at 2-0 down with three Tests left to play, as the odds of 34 on them to somehow win the Ashes and even the 22 on them pinching a drawn series suggest the Aussies have around a 95% chance of claiming the urn.

Mark Wood will likely come back in for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, but while no bowler has taken four wickets in an innings as yet, only two batters have reached 50. And the sad thing is there’s not much choice behind this failing bunch.

Aussies eye whitewash as pace duo return

Another huge 275-run victory has the Aussies sitting pretty, and to make matters worse for the tourists, premier bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood return to the fold after missing Adelaide.

They took 10 wickets between them in the first Test and you better believe the Aussies are keen to go for the 5-0 with the Ashes basically in the bag.

Australia have been solid but not spectacular, and they’ve probably been surprised by how historically bad England are – having no batter make a century and no bowler take four wickets in an innings has only happened once before in the first two Ashes Tests, according to the BBC stats boffins.

You can still get 2.96 on Australia winning 5-0 and if the weather plays ball then there’s no reason why that couldn’t come in.

Captain Cummins to shine again

With Australia a short 1.48 to win the third Test in Melbourne, it pays to look at the player markets for a bit of value, and let’s start with the bowlers and returning Aussie skipper Pat Cummins.

He took five wickets in the first Test them missed the second after being pinged as a close contact of someone with Covid. Having not been affected he’ll be fresher to give England another torrid time.

Marnus Labuschagne hit a fine century in Adelaide and became the No.1 Test batsman as a result, and he should be in the runs again while David Warner has scored 94 and 95 so maybe a century beckons this time around.

With Root under so much pressure Dawid Malan looks the only England batsman worth siding with as a 5.8 chance to top score for the beleaguered tourists in the first innings. The way it’s been going it may not take many runs to top that category.

For Man of the Match it’s Australia all the way and a simple choice of whether you fancy Cummins to do most damage with the ball or one of Labuschagne or Warner with the bat.

MCG pitch curator Matthew Page says the track will have plenty of grass and movement for the bowlers, so Cummins may be the man to have on side.

Recommended bets:

Dawid Malan England top 1st innings batsman at 5.8

Australia to win the Ashes 5-0 at 2.96