With just a day left before Australia and England renew their age-old rivalry at Brisbane’s Gabba, the latter’s bowling consultant Shane Bond continued the mind games by insisting the hosts’ batting is vulnerable.
With England’s preparation getting marred by the Ben Stokes’ absence and injuries to several players, Steve Smith & Co. have been touted as favourites.
However, Bond while admitting Australia are a good side in their conditions believes the team from Down Under is beatable in its backyard.
“We know they’re a good team in their own conditions, no doubt about that, and they’re full of good players, but they’re certainly a beatable team,” Bond said.
England, however, will have to defy history in the series-opener if they want to prove Bond right. Australia has not lost a game at the Gabba since 1988 while England hasn’t won one at the famous venue since 1986. Post that win, England played seven Tests in Brisbane and ended up on the losing side on five occasions while drawing the other two.
Bond further said the visitors would be targetting Australia’s lower-order. Shaun Marsh, who has been recalled into the team for the eighth time, will be shouldering the responsibility of number six spot and will be followed by surprise pick Tim Paine who will be playing a Test match after seven years.
Bond also believes the players will be under pressure for the criticism they have coped after being selected in the squad.
“There’s some players from five down in that order who are under a lot of pressure going into this test match because the public over here aren’t overly happy with parts of the selection. They’ve shown a willingness to wield the axe and sometimes that can be tough for players to play under,” he said.
Bond also believes England have an advantage over Australia, as they are a bowler short than the visitors since their number six cannot bowl. Australia has a formidable attack in the form of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Patt Cummins and Nathan Lyon but Bond believes if England manages to bat for long, it can negate the effect.
“We’ve got the bowling group and we also know we’re one bowler up on the Australians, They’re a strong bowling group but there’s only four of them. If we can bat for a long period of time it can have a knock-on effect for the rest of the series,” he said.
The former New Zealand pace spearhead also stated England’s bowlers have warmed-up for the five-Test series in style.
“Chris Woakes has had an outstanding start, got a lot of wickets, swung the ball and bowled fast; Craig Overton got a steep bounce and is a handful and Jake Ball is a 140kmh bowler who moves the ball around and gets a good bounce. He had an ankle niggle but was probably our best bowler up to that point. There’s certainly enough in our bowling attack, when you combine them with Jimmy and Stu and Moeen [Ali] that we can cause problems for Australia,” he said.
Also Read: (Ashes 2017/18: Shane Bond Advises England Bowlers Ahead of Brisbane Test)
(Ashes 2017/18: 1st Test – Australia’s Predicted XI)