Ashes First Test Betting Tips & Preview

I know I’ve tipped England to retain the Ashes, however they’re going to have to do it the hard way as I can’t see a way they manage to be successful at the Gabba. Australia are currently on a 28-game unbeaten run in Test cricket at the ground, and whilst the visitors have managed to secure a draw in two of the last five meetings at the ground, on the other two occasions they were beaten by 275+ runs.

With both bowling line-ups and the weather near the backend of the week looking promising, a draw is out of the window. Unfortunately for the travelling Barmy Army, I'm backing the Aussies to take an early 1-0 lead before England hopefully bounce back and level it up in Adelaide.

Cook has happy memories of the Gabba, but even when you take out his mammoth 235*, his stats are still impressive. England will be looking to their former captain to set platform and settle any early nerves in the camp and he should be buoyed by the seventy he scored in the final warm up game in Townsville last week.

The Essex man had a disappointing finish to the West Indies series in the summer, but had scored runs a plenty against a speedy South African attack earlier in the summer.

The Aussie paceman has taken 17 wicket in his four games at the Gabba to date and should be licking his lips at the prospect of getting stuck into the England top order. England’s middle to lower order have been praised at times for the attacking nature of their play, but on occasions it can and has gone horribly wrong.

The tone is set for the lower order by Moeen Ali, who rarely dies wandering at the crease. England’s summer against West Indies and South Africa showed examples of why this can be such an effective approach but also how it can often backfire.

Starc’s pace and in particular ability to bowl deadly yorkers, will make him a real threat against the lower order. The damage he causes might not be done at the top of the innings, but more likely to be in his second and third spell.