Ashes 2nd Test Preview Pt 1

Things certainly didn’t go according to plan for England in the opening test of the 2013/14 Ashes Series at Melbourne when they were beaten by a full day’s play and the aftermath continues to reverberate in the build-up to the second test.

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With some very intense sledging from the Australians attracting plenty of criticism from past Aussie greats and the English themselves, they are maintaining a semblance of “we go hard, but it’s all in good fun” that nobody is really buying at the moment. 

Australia are obviously going into this next test as the outright betting favourites having pulled off such an emphatic victory. The English, as well, are going to be without Jonathan Trott who has gone back to England because of a stress-related illness. He produced a very poor innings in the opening test and clearly did not look up to playing - much less batting at number three. 

England showed some real potential in a recent prep match against a regional side and they will doubtlessly by coming back in with a different set of tactics ahead of this match-up. 

Should England fail to win the second test then you can expect things to go into danger-mode quite quickly as the overwhelming favourites to retain the Ashes away to Australia will suddenly be firmly on the back foot doing their best to force a draw. The Aussies were not fancied to retain the Ashes but it now looks as though they are definitely in with a shout and look to be in the drivers seat right now - a fact exacerbated by the large amount of time in between the first and second test. 

Australia are trading at a 13/8 price tag right now to win the second test while the draw is the next most-likely result with a 7/5 price tag just a slight shade behind an Australian victory. A drawn test isn’t really all that likely as a huge amount of rain doesn’t appear to be factoring into the forecast as we get closer to the next test.