Michael Atherton believes England can take encouragement from the recent Test series between Australia and India as Ben Stokes' side prepare to face both teams in the next 12 months.
Michael Atherton believes England can take encouragement from the recent Test series between Australia and India as Ben Stokes' side prepare to face both teams in the next 12 months. Australia were handily beaten by 295 runs in the opening Test in Perth before fighting back to win the series 3-1, but Atherton saw vulnerabilities in the hosts' batting line-up, in particular, that has the former England captain 'optimistic' of a first Ashes win Down Under since 2010/11.
Travis Head and Yashavi Jaiswal were the only top-order batters on either side to average over 35 - 56.00 and 43.44, respectively - and though scourge of England in Ashes' past, Steve Smith, matched Head's two centuries for the series, he averaged a modest 34.88, with other big-name players, Virat Kohli (23.75), Rohit Sharma (6.20) and Marnus Labuschagne (25.77) faring even worse. England host India in a five-Test series from June 20 this summer, live on Sky Sports Cricket, before travelling to Australia for the Ashes in November. 'The lack of form for India's top players, Rohit, Virat and others, allied with an over-reliance on Bumrah, in the end was the difference,' Atherton said on the latest episode of the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. 'From an England perspective, I felt that they would have taken some encouragement… from both sides, actually. 'Both sides' batting looks vulnerable. Australia struggled as well; Usman Khawaja at the top, Smith got two hundreds but didn't quite seem like the player he was, and Labuschagne really struggled. Mitch Marsh was dropped, and Carey looked vulnerable to the ball coming back into him'
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