Warnie stating what many of us already suspect

Poms' best chance down under for 20 years

"Australia great Shane Warne believes England will travel Down Under for the 2010-2011 summer with their "best" chance of winning the Ashes away from home in over 20 years.

England hold the Ashes after a 2-1 series win on home soil last year but they have not won a Test campaign in Australia since Mike Gatting's men triumphed on their victorious 1986-1987 tour.

But Warne, who retired after Australia's 5-0 whitewash in the 2006-2007 Ashes series in Australia, said England have a "trump'' card in off-spinner Graeme Swann and will run the hosts close when the world's oldest Test rivalry resumes in Brisbane in November.

"They can challenge us for the first time since 1986-1987,'' Warne told several British newspapers in interviews on Wednesday.

"It will be a good series. I think it'll be close. Our home record over the last few years hasn't been as strong. They lost to South Africa and drew with India.

"But it's still a tough ask to win in Australia.''

Indeed the only two touring side to have won Test series in Australia during the last 20 years were West Indies in 1992-1993 and South Africa in 2008-2009."

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I've said exactly this a number of times recently with the one reservation being just how penetrative the English attack is. But recent good form by Broadaxe and Swanny augurs well for the Pomgolians.

Let it be a cracking series.

Interestng that Warne has been big on the fact that the Aussies no longer can bully teams and in fact he expects the poms to bully us.

Nonetheless how their seamers and Swann adapt to the conditions will be crucial. It's been a bit of a graveyard here for off-spinners and many of the venues will not suit those who rely on movement such as Anderson, Sidebottom and Onions. Broad's height and ability to bang it in might serve them better.

"It's been a bit of a graveyard here for off-spinners "

Horrorz managed to take 29 wickets last summer

embee wrote:"It's been a bit of a graveyard here for off-spinners "

Horrorz managed to take 29 wickets last summer

Goodness Embee, even a dumb blonde like me can work out who he was bowling to.

Let's look more closely at history.

...and Swann will be bowling at the bunch of morons who get out to the likes of Harris and Benn

A fair point. Sh!t, now I am scared.

And as i've always said. let's start competing in Australia first eh?

We're still ranked 5th.

Just adding some meat to the bones that MB has chucked out, Paul Harris has a fairly tidy record v Aus - 6 Tests for 24 wickets at 32.58 (much better than his overall average of 37.10).

Benn's record v Aus is a little less flattering with 4 Tests for 15 wickets at 39.66 (close to his Test average of 40.92).

What's Murali's record in Tests in Australia for Sri Lanka?

Hehehe, is that a rhetorical Q?

For SL in Aus - 4 Tests 7 wkts 748 runs ave 106.85.

Hu-farkin-zzah!

I think lardy has 4-7-748-106.85 tattooed on his forearm as a mark of celebration.

Quite remarkable and a mark of his and the Lankans' sookiness towards Aus that he only played 5 of his 132 Tests in Australia.

Warney's words are all just media circus.

Haven't you lot got that yet?

The subis cling on to his words as some sort of vote of confidence for the little cheat.

That's all part of the media circus.

It fills column inches. Keeps hacks happy. Gets people talking, discussing, outraged, contented. Stirs up interest, ticket-buying, etc. Keeps the sport in the public eye when precious little is happening especially.

Media circus.

Ach, give it another couple of months & some joker will find Glenn McGrath & ask for his prediction. He'll give his default response that he expects Aus to win every test & it'll be in 2 inch high headlines ... cue outrage all round

skully wrote:Quite remarkable and a mark of his and the Lankans' sookiness towards Aus that he only played 5 of his 132 Tests in Australia.

dennis lillee played

0 out of aus' 6 tests in india
3 out of 6 in pak
1 out of 10 in the windies

murali played

5 out of lanka's 7 tests in aus

Lillee organised WSC to avoid touring India and the West Indies did he ?

He probably faked his stress fractures too ...

Back to Warney .... apart from which, the usual urbane mild mindgames jockeying the Poms back into a postion as "favourites".

I don't think anyone these days will buy that dummy

embee wrote:Lillee organised WSC to avoid touring India and the West Indies did he ?

He probably faked his stress fractures too ...

what was the reason for him skipping the pak tour in 1982?

England won't take 20 wickets even once. Unless the Aussies commit suicide and prepare green-tops.

England have a one-conditions attack. And it's not Aussie-conditions...

I'm praying you're right, JD.

The One wrote:

embee wrote:Lillee organised WSC to avoid touring India and the West Indies did he ?

He probably faked his stress fractures too ...

what was the reason for him skipping the pak tour in 1982?

Dont know ...probably injury ....his knees and back were fairly bad at that stage of his career

Dello wrote:England won't take 20 wickets even once. Unless the Aussies commit suicide and prepare green-tops.

England have a one-conditions attack. And it's not Aussie-conditions...

Haven't you heard of Climate Change ....