Deep Fine Leg

“It (aura) only comes with a consistent level of performance for a long period of time. Australia had that, personally I don’t feel that’s where they are right at the moment.”

These were the views of Andrew Strauss ahead of the third Ashes test. He was referring to the fact that the current Australian side isn’t as intimidating as they once were.

To be honest, I’m not sure why people have made such a big deal out of this. Anyone could have told you that Australia aren’t quite as confident or invincible as they were when the likes of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were in the team. Who would be?

The fact is that Australia don’t have as many established test match cricketers in their side as they have done in the last decade. Having Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath in your side means that you have a team made up of players that have been there and done it in international cricket.

Now that all of these players, with the exception of Ponting, have retired from the game, it is inevitable that a particular ‘aura’ is going to be lost. New players aren’t going to come in and automatically start being treated with as much respect as the man they have replaced.

So, Strauss’ views that it isn’t as intimidating facing the current crop as it was the team that won 5-0 in 2006/2007 are correct. Whether he should be talking about it so close to a test match though is another matter.

What did he hope to achieve? Well, I’m guessing it was designed to get into the heads of Australia and Ponting. This is often quite hard to do, but in fairness, the Aussie skipper bit back.

Ponting suggested that England’s current test ranking of five highlights the fact that they themselves don’t have an aura about them. He also mentioned how several of his team are ‘starting to find their feet at international level’.

Who knows, in four years time, a very similar Australia team could come to England with an aura that we have associated with them for so long. It’s all about building respect as a team and showing the other nations that you mean business over a consistent period of time, after all.

To sum up, I would say that Strauss’ comments are accurate, even if a bit too obvious to require a mention. Ponting’s comments about England’s lack of an aura are correct (with the exception of Freddie), even if a bit too obvious to require a mention.

As you were.

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Make sure you’re keeping on top of the Ashes odds before any Edgbaston Test betting.

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There is no doubt that England cricket fans have been brought down to earth slightly by the news that star batsman Kevin Pietersen will miss the remainder of the Ashes series with an Achilles injury.

The injury that has plagued KP during the first two test matches has finally got the better of him and let’s be honest, the news doesn’t actually come as that much of a surprise. The big question though, is – how much will Pietersen be missed by England?

Well, there are several ways of looking at it and there are arguments to suggest that England won’t miss KP too much and that they will miss him a great deal. Let’s go through them…

Why England won’t miss Pietersen

•       He was in pretty ordinary form.
•       The injury was hampering his game and meant that he wouldn’t have been himself for the rest of the series.
•       Further aggravation to the injury could have led to a much more serious problem.
•       It might mean that other players stop relying on him and step up their own game.

Why England will miss Pietersen

•       Quite simply, he is the most feared English batsman.
•       His absence makes the middle order look a lot weaker – 3. Bopara, 4.
Collingwood, 5. Bell.
•       The Australians will think that the initiative will be back in their favour.
•       It would have been extremely likely that KP was going to play a match-winning innings in one of the final three tests – can someone else step up and do the same?

Overall, it is too hard to say which of these arguments has more weight. We will know a lot more as the series goes on. If Bell or Bopara manage to score a century at Edgbaston, the absence of Pietersen might not seem too significant.

If England are exposed and the middle-order fails though, don’t be surprised to see everyone harping on about how England are a one man team. All in all, how England respond in the next test match is absolutely huge so keep an eye on the Third Test odds before placing your Third Test bet and, if you need to get in the mood for some rivalry, check out Betfair’s new fan v fan site.

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