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Ashes fifth Test preview: Can England gain consolation victory?

2 years ago
| BY News Team

The curtain is about to close on one of cricket’s fiercest rivalries, and Australia will look to wrap up the Ashes in style by grabbing another win over England.

It has not been the competitive fixture we all thought it would be, but England will look to save face by getting their first victory of the series.

We’ve previewed the fifth and final Test from Hobart…

What can we expect from England?

It can be argued that England came into this series as underdogs, given their lack of preparation as well as injuries, but whatever way you look at it, three losses from four matches played is still way below expectations. Captain Joe Root was open and honest on England’s performances in the first three Tests, but the draw in the most recent game at Sydney was much more of a positive and a victory in their final game would mean this is a tour that some positives can be taken from. Despite their battling performance last time out, England still go into series finale as the outsiders at 6/1, with injuries and new faces meaning preparation, yet again, has been disrupted.

How will Australia approach this game?

Australia (8/15) have done pretty much everything right in this series so far and the only thing they’ll be annoyed by is that fact they aren’t four nil up. Failing to make it a whitewash won’t have sat well with some in the Australian camp and they’ll surely use it as motivation ahead of the Hobart game. While stars like Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Starc have led from the front, it was hard not to be equally impressed by Usman Khawaja’s return to the fold in Sydney. On his first appearance in Test side since 2019, Khawaja scored hundreds in both innings at the SCG and the Australian selectors will have a hard time keeping him out of the side even with Travis Head, another hundred scorer in this series, back in contention. If Khawaja does return to the side, he could very well look to establish himself as a regular in the side again and is priced at 5/1 to be his country’s top first innings run scorer.

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