Former England opening bowler Darren Gough believes Australia are rightful favourites and thinks the hosts could run out 3-1 winners in the series.
Speaking exclusively to Oddschecker at The Kia Oval, 47-year old Gough was positive about the positive impact that England captain Joe Root can have in the Ashes, but thinks that Australia still retain the advantage ahead of the series.
Australia are best priced 4/9 to retain the urn, whilst Gough’s prediction of 3-1 is seen by the bookmakers as the most likely outcome and is 5/1 across the boards.
“I think it will be closer than a lot of people think,” Gough said when pushed for a prediction, “On paper, purely because of Australian conditions, I’m going to go for them to clinch it.”
“If I was going to plump for one, and put my hard-earned cash down, I’m going to go for 3-1 Australia.”
When asked about the importance of captains the Ashes, Gough called upon Root to score the runs to fire England to a victory.
“We need out our captain Joe Root to come up to the plate, as we’ve seen what a great player he is and he wants to be the best in the world, then come out and knock us three hundreds in this series; that would be the dream.”
Root is best priced 7/4 to be England’s top batsman and 6/1 to score the most runs in the series. Find all the Ashes bets before the action starts
