Aussies look too strong

Graham Griffiths

Australia have every reason to be confident of winning their seventh consecutive Ashes series with a team that is mentally strong, bristling with firepower and led by the indomitable Steve Waugh.

While England have suffered psychological blows and injury problems in the build-up to the five-Test confrontation, the Australians have confirmed their credentials with formidable cricket.

Waugh's men have moved with immense certainty towards peak form for the first Test starting at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on Thursday, leaving their opponents in no doubt about how much they must raise their game to end Australia's 12-year hold on the Ashes.

The whole mood surrounding England has changed in the past month, starting when they twice collapsed to lose the second Test to Pakistan and continuing as they lost all six games in the triangular one-day series.

Three of those defeats were against Australia, who took the opportunity to instil a few doubts in the minds of the England players with a chilling display of pace bowling under lights at Old Trafford, dismissing their opponents for 86, then with a dominant all-round performance at The Oval.

On top of all that, England go into the opening Test of the five-match series without their best batsman, Graham Thorpe, who has a calf strain that has sidelined him for nearly a month.

Michael Vaughan is a fitness concern, while Nasser Hussain is desperately short of match practice. England's skipper has had only two innings, both for his county Essex, since breaking his right thumb batting against Pakistan in the Lord's Test in mid-May.

England won four consecutive Test series before drawing 1-1 with Pakistan, but if they are showing vulnerability then Waugh will quickly exploit it. He is a master of the art.

Certainly, their two collapses in the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford were a return to past failings, with the last eight wickets going for 75 runs in the first innings and 60 in the second innings.

POTENT ATTACK

England now have the prospect of facing Australia's most potent attack -- Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee, plus Shane Warne, who is anxious to prove one or two doubters wrong after injury and a moderate tour of India earlier this year.

McGrath, Gillespie and Lee have played together in a test only once, against West Indies in Perth last December, and Waugh will relish the chance to unleash the contrasting talents of the pace trio against England.

Lee's recovery from an elbow injury that kept him out of the Test series in India has been significant.

Not surprisingly, he looked rusty when the triangular series started but by the time Australia trounced Pakistan in the final at Lord's towards the end of last month he was bowling at speeds of up to 91 mph.

If England are to make the series a close contest it will be imperative for Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick to continue the successful new-ball partnership they have developed over the past 12 months.

Gough's great value is his ability to make early inroads in to the top order, while Caddick is irresistible when he gets his rhythm right, as he showed in demolishing West Indies for 54 at Lord's and 61 at Leeds last season.

Getting enough runs may be England's biggest problem. The Australians have already worked out how best to bowl to some of the newcomers to Ashes cricket, including Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan.

That is part of the touring team's meticulous planning and preparation.

Waugh leaves nothing to chance. He is the only member of his squad to have suffered an Ashes series defeat -- in Australia in 1986-87 -- and he will not want to be the man who loses the Ashes the first time he captains his country against England.

Mail Cricket Editor