Ashes 2023Will England close the gap on Australia in the oldest rivalry in cricket?

By Rounaq SehrawatEngland are all set to lock horns with Australia in the 2023 Ashes series as the oldest rivalry in cricket resumes on June 16. Edgbaston will play the host for the first match of the series as the WTC champions come up against England’s ‘Bazball’ for the very first time.

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England will be looking to balance the scales following their 0-4 drubbing at the hands of Australia in the 2021/22 Ashes series down under. As of now, Australia has won 34 of the 72 Ashes series, while England have come out as victors on 32 occasions.

The Ashes has always seen phases of dominance from one team since the inception of the series in 1882, which kick-started with England winning the first eight and 11 of the first 12 Ashes series. Then there was a period of Australian dominance between 1989 and 2003, when the Baggy Greens won the series eight times in a row, under the leadership of legends like Allan Border and Steve Waugh.

However, the historically-charged series has been way more balanced in terms of results recently. In the last six Ashes series, England came out on top twice, Australia won thrice while one ended in a draw. Interestingly, the big deciding factor in each of these victories has been home advantage.

Australia’s three most-recent Ashes victories have all come at home, where they drubbed the visitors 5-0 in 2013/14, 4-0 in 2017/18 and 4-0 in 2021/22. As for England, they beat Australia 3-0 in 2013, 3-2 in 2015 and were held to a 2-2 draw in 2019. England holds the home advantage this time around, which could be a massive plus for them, as history has shown.

Bazball meets WTC champions

This will also be the first time that Australia comes up against the revolutionary style of Test cricket that England has adopted over the last year. The Three Lions switched to a more attacking style of play with the introduction of Brendon McCullum as their Test coach in May of 2022.

England took on New Zealand in June last year and blew the Kiwis away with their high scoring-rate and T20-style approach, coming out as 3-0 winners in the three-match Test series. Since that switch, England has not lost a Test series, blowing over South Africa and Pakistan while being held to a draw by India and New Zealand, before smashing Ireland by 10 wickets in a one-off Test earlier this month.

As for the Aussies, they come into the first game of the 2023 Ashes on the back of a World Test Championship Final victory over India. Since the 2021/22 Ashes, Australia has defeated Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa, while being held to a draw by Sri Lanka and losing the Border-Gavaskar series in India.

England has a chance of closing the gap on Australia and will be favorites given the home advantage and their hell for leather style of play. At the same time, Australia are no pushovers and will come into the competition high on confidence following their WTC triumph.