It’s party time at the land of Kangaroos as arch-rivals England and Australia lock horns for one of the greatest cricketing spectacle, The Ashes. The 70th edition overall and the 35th hosted by Australia will see a lot of drama unfold. There’s never any dearth or drama when it comes to the Ashes and the same can be said about this edition.
With the Ben Stokes fiasco shattering the hearts of English cricket fans, the Three Lions pulling off something spectacular doesn’t seem a plausible argument. That gives no room for the Aussies to let complacency get the better of them. They still have a good side and with all the focus shifting towards the Aussies, the English might relish a fact of being the underdogs.
However, both the teams have announced their playing XI ahead of the first Test to be played in Brisbane from November 23.
Joe Root has named seamer Jake Ball ahead of Craig Overton in the side, while Steve Smith has confirmed that seamers Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers will miss out.
Here is the playing XI of both the teams:
Australia:
David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon.
England:
Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Dawid Malan, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.
