Coral’s five stars for best England Ashes series batsman accolade

With the 2015 Ashes, ever nearing, Coral writers provide cricket punters with top tips for the five-match series. We start off with the top England series batsman market.

The hosts are unfancied at 7/2 to reclaim the urn from Australia (4/11 odds-on favourite to win), but can be quietly confident of making it a fourth straight victory on home turf against the Baggy Greens.

Gary Ballance – 11/2
With a Test average of 52.19 from his first 23 innings for England, Zimbabwe-born Ballance is a rising star in the game.

The 25-year-old already has hundreds under his name against India (twice), Sri Lanka and most recently in the series with West Indies, who he also got scores of 77 and an unbeaten 81 against too.

Although he only managed a total of 36 runs from his four innings against New Zealand, the disciplined Yorkshire batter will certainly be one that the Aussies will be wary about.

Alastair Cook – 3/1
On paper, captain Cook is England’s leading Test runscorer (exactly 9000) and century maker (27), but it is fair to say he’s been less prolific over the past couple of years.

However, after recently getting his first two hundreds since 2013, against West Indies and then New Zealand, it seems that the Essex opener is back in-form, with four other 50s from those two series’ too.

Cook will be hoping to replicate his record-breaking form in 2010/11 Ashes, when he finished as top series batter with an astonishing 766 runs at an average of 127.66, while gaining three centuries along the way. He is a more enticing 5/1 to get the most runs of the series again.