Ashes 2009 3rd Edgbaston Test preview
Ashes 2009 3rd Test preview
England will be entering the third Ashes Test on Thursday at Edgbaston against a low Australians and will be extremely confident of their talismanic titan Andrew Flintoff but sans the services of Kevin Pietersen even as Australia look to level the series at 1-1.
Freddie’s spell on the day 5 of the Lord’s Test sealed a 115-run win for England, their first in the ground in 75 years.
But, Pietersen gave in to his Achilles problem and said that he would take no further part in the series. Flintoff, had earlier announced before the match that the series will be his final Test series.
Captain Andrew Strauss will hopeful to use Flintoff as and when appropriate. It had earlier been reported that Freddie has been sleeping with a special compression machine on his troublesome joint and Aussie’s Michael Clarke said, “Andrew Flintoff is an amazing player. He is always up for the big contests. He seems to perform under pressure and no doubt he will be ready on Thursday to give us more stick.â€
Bell was drafted into the squad in place of Pietersen and the selectors have made it clear that Bell was their man.
Bell a veteran of 46 Tests, has missed England’s last eight and was dropped in the Caribbean and his average against Australia is a modest 25.
Clarke said Australia had been given a lift by Pietersen’s absence. “Anytime a very good player is not playing, like Kevin Pietersen, it gives the team a boost but Ian is a very good player himself.â€
Ashes holders Australia are again set to be without fast bowler Brett Lee because of the side injury that ruled him out of the first two Tests. That wouldn’t be an issue if left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson wasn’t struggling so much for line and length. A good news will await their skipper Ricky Ponting as he needs another 25 runs to surpass retired former captain Border’s mark of 11,174 runs and move up into third place in the all-time list of Test run-scorers. If Ponting achieves this feat, he would have taken 22 Tests fewer than Border to score the runs. Ponting was quite candid and when questioned on it, had a tongue-in-cheek reply in place, “I have known about it since the beginning of the series. Things came up on the board during the first Test, given I went past 11,000 and all that stuff. So I have had a rough idea but I have not thought about it or focused on it at all. I have bigger fish to fry than that right at the moment. But, look hopefully it comes. It would be nice to get it out of the way in the first innings of this game.”
Well, one can only hope that Ponting can surpass Allan Border in this Test and ensure that his good run in Ashes 2009 continues and his team level the series in what promises to be a nail-biting contest. Let the games begin!
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