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When England coach [b]Andy Flower[/b] and his selectors sit down to pick the starting XI for the first Test they better have a rubber handy! If a cricket team was made up of 12 players then Flower wouldn't have a problem. He has seven batsmen, a wicket keeper and four bowlers chomping at the bit and raring to go against an Australian side that appears to be wobbling. No matter how hard Flower tries, he isn't going to be able to shoehorn the seventh batsman into the side which means that one player will miss out. Sadly, none of the seven are dual talented and able to keep wicket which means that [b]Matt Prior[/b] is safe, as are the four bowlers who were rested for the game against Australia A. Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steve Finn and Graeme Swann are in the [b]starting 11[/b]...

It's getting closer, [b]the Ashes[/b] series is within touching distance and is the hottest topic in town when the pint after work club gather around the watering hole and put the world to rights. Australia are in free-fall, they haven't endured a losing streak like this since touring sides arrived in a boat. England expects! The paradox is that the hope and expectation is increasing the pressure on the [b]England[/b] players and it's a classic case of 'cometh the hour.' It's no good thumping Bangladesh, putting Pakistan to the sword or winning the Twenty20 World Cup if they can't manage to achieve what every English cricketer is put on earth to do - beat the Aussies in the Ashes in Australia! A team doesn't go to Australia and do 'alright' and come back successful. England are going...

It's odd how your memory plays tricks on you. Back in 1970 you couldn't sit up all night to watch [b]the Ashes[/b] live on TV because it wasn't shown. We'd barely got colour then, never mind satellites. But I did devour every word that was written from Down Under during that winter, and I clearly recall Ray Illingworth being one of the key figures, not only as a captain but a bowler. In fact, I was lucky enough to be asked to ghost a coaching book for him a few years later, and sat enthralled in his Pudsey home learning the secrets of the man I thought had spun the [b]Aussies[/b] into defeat across an epic seven Test series. Look at the record books this morning and I'm so wrong. Four of England's bowlers took more than the 10 wickets he collected, and quite clearly off spin wasn't...