LISA STHALEKAR: England do not have the bowling firepower to take 20 Australian wickets for 2025-26 Ashes

So much of the build-up to the first Ashes Test has been about how and if Bazball will work in Australia, and how many Tests England’s strike bowlers will actually play.

But a better question is does England have the bowling firepower to take 20 wickets each Test? After seeing them up close I am not sure they can.

Since the term Bazball entered the cricketing lexicon in mid-2022 England have toned down their approach, given that they haven’t beaten the other two big countries, Australia and India, with this T20-style approach to batting.

Two drawn Test series and a loss against India is the best that they have managed.

I was fortunate enough to take in some of England’s last Test series at home against India which ended in a drawn series, 2-2.

Off the back of that result I feel confident that Australia will overpower them 3-1 in the Ashes.

I based this on the fact that England have struggled to pick up wickets outside of the new ball and the only man who was able to do so was their skipper Ben Stokes. And he failed to play the last Test after succumbing to a shoulder injury from his enormous bowling workload.

Those pitches in England were flat, which meant it was hard work for the bowlers from both sides to get the necessary 20 wickets to win the match.

More than 1050 overs were bowled by England, some 200 more than India.

If that theme continues here, even without Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, our fast bowlers are better suited to toiling away on harder surfaces.

Can Jofra Archer, Stokes and Mark Wood last all five Tests? I am not sure about that.

Then enter the spin factor. Nathan Lyon is playing his 140th Test and having picked up 268 wickets at home is a real bonus for the Aussies.

Not only can he bowl a mountain of overs, holding up an end, but he has the ability to pick up wickets.

His counterpart is the young 22-year-old Shoaib Bashir, who has never played in Australia or even South Africa, which tend to be similar pitches.

All this sets the scene for a mouth-watering clash where England feel they have the best chance to end their 15-year winless run.

The Ashes is like Christmas Day for cricket lovers and three days out from the first ball being bowled we really have no idea what the Australian XI will look like now the complication of replacing two frontline pace bowlers has been added to the intrigue around who will open the batting and where Cameron Green bats.

Every time the Ashes rolls around on our shores it seems to get bigger. I can still remember the first ball of the last series here in Australia. Mitch Starc bowling Rory Burns around his legs. And who can forget Steve Harmison bowling a wide to second slip?

For Seven, the last and only time it broadcast the Ashes was the COVID series when commentators were restricted and unable to travel to all venues and everyone was super cautious about everything.

This time round, Seven is going big. To kick things off there is an Ashes preview show airing on Wednesday night to whet the appetite, with cricketing greats Ricky Ponting and Aaron Finch dissecting what has happened in the lead-up and what we can expect from the first Test.

Throw in English legends Stuart Broad and David “Bumble” Lloyd as part of the commentary team and I expect the battles may be just as fierce in the commentary box as they are on the field.

Let’s just hope all this hype doesn’t fizzle once both teams are out there. There is a lot that rests on this series, and I mean a lot.