Ashes 2013 – experienced England 4/9 favourites for home series win

The 2013 Ashes looks to be a clash of innocence an experience, with the youthful, evolving Australian outfit taking on battle-hardened English XI. The current Ashes 2013 betting with Coral sees England 4/9 favourites to retain the famous urn for the third series in succession with a series victory, whilst a win for their southern hemisphere rivals is 7/2 and the draw can backed at 5/1.

The retirements late last and early this year of Ricky Ponting and Micheal “Mr Cricket” Hussey mean that the ravages of time have dispensed with all but one of the batsmen that could claim to have played apart in the last golden era of Australian test cricket, with only skipper Michael Clarke standing firm against the tide.

In Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen England’s batting line up still contains members of the side that famously conquered that great Aussie side to recapture the Ashes after an 18 year famine back in 2005. A huge 10 members of the squad that took back the urn in 2009 are in contention to for this year’s series.

A stark contrast between the recent form of the sides is seen when their recent trips to the sub-continent are considered.  Clarke’s Australians were whitewashed 4-0 in India, whereas England garnered a 2-1 triumph that was their first series win in the country since the 1984/5 season.

Michael Clarke is currently the only Australian inside the Reliance ICC Test Championship Batting Rankings’ top 34, company he is joined in by England willowmen Allistair Cook, Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell, all of whom rank no lower than seventeenth.

Amongst the bowling ranks the players in the respective camps are closer in class with Australia’s Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus firmly inside the ranking’s top 20 and Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon and James Pattinson lurking just that echelon. England’s four leading bowlers James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Stewart Broad and Steve Finn are rated among the best 17 on the planet.