5 things to look forward to in the 3rd Ashes Test
The score-line reads 1-1. But, if one had a choice to be in one of the two dressing rooms, it is hard to imagine anyone picking the English. Losing a game before the final day is bad. Losing it by more than 400 runs makes it even more painful.But the shattered hope that Australian bowlers aren’t at their best on slow featherbeds is what will give England sleepless nights. After a horrid first match, England might have managed to wake their Frankenstein and Mitchell Johnson definitely showed that he is capable of doing to England in England what he did to them in Australia.That is no way an exciting prospect, especially if you walk in at No.3 for England and currently look like a dead duck to any ball that is fast, short or moves a centimetre. The Third Test will be an extremely exciting contest. There are umpteen reasons to look forward to Birmingham in what could be the match of this Ashes series, sure to define where the urn goes. Here, we take a look at five reasons we cannot take our eyes off the Third Test.
#1 Will Michael Clarke find his form?
Australians don’t have a thing for grand farewells. Their greatest, Steve Waugh, just about managed one, barely hanging on with his fingernails. Clarke has the World Cup. Clarke has a 5-0 Ashes win. But, he hasn’t ever won the Ashes in England and he isn’t in a really great nick.
He would dearly love to set both things right but time is running out on him, especially with Steven Smith looking like he is capable of walking to the pitch on roller blades and still smack the English bowlers all day long. It cannot be easy with that back and with the heir apparent in that form, much like the trouble he caused for Ricky Ponting.
Clarke could shape a legacy here or he could be given the nudge. Thankfully for him, he still has a minimum of three Tests in what could probably be his last Ashes series on the English shores. We all know he is a fighter and we all know he keeps coming back from the dead like it is a walk in the park. That makes for a good reason to keep a tab on the Third Test.