Survive The Early Blast And Cash In, England

As much as we try, we just cannot banish the memories of Mitchell Johnson tearing the England batting attack apart Down Under from four years ago.

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Now the Three Lions get set to make that trip again, with a battle against pace looking very likely given Australia’s predicted line-up, even though James Pattinson has already been ruled out with a back injury.

Facing pace will be something the England unit needs to get used to. They’ll be up against bowling machines as soon as they get to Australia, and will want to test themselves out against guys who can break that 90mph limit in their warm-up games.

The ball doesn’t swing for long in Australia, so the lateral seam movement is minimal as soon as the ball gets soft, which doesn’t take long because the pitches are so abrasive and hard. The Kookaburra seam is smaller than a Dukes seam, too, so you need guys who are a bit taller and a bit quicker.