Picking a combined England-Australia XI ahead of The Ashes 2023
The Ashes 2023 series will begin on Friday (June 16) at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The ICC World Test Championship 2023 winners Australia will square off against a resurgent England team in a five-Test series over the next weeks. This series will also kick off the 2023-25 WTC cycle.
Both Australia and England will aim to gain as many points as possible from this WTC series. The two arch-rivals have announced solid squads for the five Tests. Ahead of the first Test in Birmingham, let's take a look at the combined XI from Australia and England's squads.
Openers - David Warner and Usman Khawaja
Australian openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja will start the innings for this team. Warner has been one of the most successful batters in Ashes history. He has scored 1,888 runs, smacking three hundreds and 14 fifties against England.
Meanwhile, Khawaja made a spectacular comeback to Test cricket in the 2021/22 series against England. He aggregated 255 runs in four innings and cemented his spot in the Australian Test squad.
Middle Order - Joe Root, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Jonny Bairstow (wk) and Ben Stokes (c)
Fab 4 club members, Joe Root and Steve Smith will form the middle-order of this team along with world number one Test batter Marnus Labuschagne. The aggressive duo of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes complete the middle-order.
Root and Smith have been the top batters for England and Australia respectively in the last few years. While Smith has scored over 3,000 runs against England, Root has amassed 2,016 runs in 29 Ashes Tests.
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Bairstow has unleashed his new avatar in Test cricket under the guidance of Stokes and Brendon McCullum. He recorded four hundreds in five innings during the previous English summer.
Meanwhile, Stokes has been unstoppable ever since he became England's Test captain. He has recorded 11 wins in 14 matches. Overall, the all-rounder has scored 1,157 runs and picked up 38 wickets in The Ashes.
Bowlers - Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Stuart Broad and James Anderson
Nathan Lyon will be the only spin bowler in this playing XI. Lyon has bagged 101 wickets in 28 Tests against England so far. His captain Pat Cummins also has an excellent record against England, having scalped 73 wickets in 14 matches of The Ashes.
The veteran England duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson have been two of the most successful bowlers in Test cricket history. They have played many Test matches against Australia together.
Shedding some light on their numbers in The Ashes, Broad has accounted for 131 wickets in 35 matches, whereas Anderson has scalped 112 wickets in the same number of games. They will hold the key to England's success in the upcoming series.
Combined England-Australia playing XI for The Ashes 2023
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Joe Root, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, James Anderson and Stuart Broad.