Former Australia captain, Ricky Ponting has predicted a 3-2 result in favour of Australia for the upcoming Ashes series, which is scheduled to start from November 21.
Speaking on an episode of The ICC Review, Ponting also predicted that there will not be any drawn games if the weather stays good.
“I don’t think there’ll be any draws, just the way that England play. If there’s reasonable weather through the Australian summer, we know that the biggest concern for the last 15 years has been Sydney with the amount of days we’ve lost there. Perth and Brisbane this time of year are normally great. So I don’t foresee any drawn games and I just think it’s going to be really, really close. So I’m going 3-2 Australia,” he said.
This year’s Ashes will be a big challenge for Ben Stokes and his team. England have not won a single match on Australian soil since their 3-1 series win in 2010-11. For the last 10 years, England have not won an Ashes series. Still, Ponting believes it will be a closely fought contest.
Ponting, who led Australia in 19 Test matches in the Ashes, also believes that if England’s openers fail to give a strong start, the Australian pacers could make life difficult for the English middle order.
“Everyone will talk about Root and Brook and Stokes and the impact that they could have on this series. But if the openers don’t get England off to a really good, solid, fast start, then the Australian bowlers could dominate and get into that middle-order nice and early with the newer Kookaburra ball and it could be exactly what Australia are after.” he added.
For the latest sports news follow- Revsportz