Australia vs England, The Ashes 2021, Today Match Prediction 16 December 2021

aus vs eng Match Prediction & Analysis

After a well-deserving win in the first Ashes against England, Australia is all geared up to host the visitors at Adelaide Oval. The second Test of the five-match Test series is scheduled to go on floors on 16th December from 9:30 AM onwards. The day-night Test will be an advantage for Australia to go 2-0 up with the amount of firepower they have in their squad. On the other hand, England will likely continue to struggle with their not-so-dominating squad.

The first Ashes ended in a nightmare for the English side. The green pitch of Gabba haunted the English batters as they crumbled to 147 in the first innings. The moment of the game was the beautiful first ball swing by Mitchell Starc that sent Rory Burns back in the Pavillion. Aussies made sure that there won’t be much sweat from their side in the second innings. Travis Head’s 152 runs knock off 148 deliveries put Australia in a stronger position with a lead of 278 runs.

England showed some resilience from the top-order on day three of the game. David Malan (82) and skipper (89) were the only batters who played Aussie pacers with patience and grit. But a crumbling performance from the middle-order saw England set a target of just 20 runs which Australia chased at a wicket’s loss. The result made The Gabba an Aussie fortress again. A winning start of the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 saw Australia taking the second spot from Pakistan in the points table. While England dropped down to the second last place with just 9 points in 5 outcomes. The loss added misery to England’s most worrying stat. They are now without a victory in the last 11 Tests in Australia (10 losses, 1 draw).

TEAMS PREVIEW

Australia Preview

It was a scintillating start for Pat Cummins as a skipper of the Australia team. He will be all happy to take the shoes once again with his bowling unit. The pacers took 16 wickets in the first match for Australia including a fifer for Cummins. But he will be without Josh Hazelwood in the second Ashes. Hazelwood suffered a side injury which will rule him out of the Boxing Day Test. Western Australia’s Jhye Richardson is likely to take his place in the playing eleven. Cameron Green will be an option for Cummins in case Richardson fails to make an impact. Green put the final nail on the English resistance by picking the crucial wicket of Joe Root on the fourth day 

Australia survived a scare with Warner getting hit on the chest. Warner who scored 94 in the first innings didn’t open the second innings. But the scans showed no damage to the ribs and hence he will be ready to open the innings with the newcomer Alex Carey. Carey impressed everyone with his gloves. The debutant took 8 catches behind the wickets. Australia will give more chances to Carey with ex-skipper Tim Paine being sidelined amidst controversy. Australia will be dependent on Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in the second Ashes if openers fail. The destructive duo has a very good record against England. After all one won’t miss 11 centuries from Steve Smith in the Ashes. 

Key Players: Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins

Australia Predicted Playing XI:

David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Australia Actual Playing XI:

Michael Neser, Marcus Harris, Jhye Richardson, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Steven Smith, Nathan Lyon, Cameron Green, David Warner, Travis Head

England Preview

A lot of work is to be done for the visitors and skipper Joe Root. His openers - Rory Burns and Haseeb Hamid have failed to give him the start in the last few games (except one inning against India). Another poor performance from the top-order can see the 2021’s leading run-scorer on backfoot. Joe Root will be playing his 14th Test of the year and has already scored 1544 runs with 6 centuries at an average of 64.33. He will expect David Malan to continue supporting him in the top-order. Ben Stokes didn’t make a comeback in style. But he will be roaring to repeat his heroics from the earlier Ashes series. One can not undermine Sir Ben Stokes with his position as an all-rounder in the team. James Buttler needs to come out from his T20 mindset. The wicket-keeper made a little contribution in the middle-order with 39 and 23 runs. But the management will be looking forward to a big inning from him. 

England are set to go back to their ‘AB’ plan. The world’s leading wicket-taker from an active set of players James Anderson and his fellow Stuart Broad should be included in place of Mark Wood and Chris Woakes. Anderson’s 104 wickets in the Ashes must not be overlooked over his age. 18 wickets in 6 Tests of 2021 shows the angry old man still has the wicket-taking ability left in him. Jack Leach will likely be continued after a sluggish performance in the first Ashes as the Adelaide pitch favours spinners.

Key Players: Joe Root, James Anderson, David Malan

England Predicted Playing XI:

Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Jack Leach

England Actual Playing XI:

Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Jos Buttler, James Anderson, Ben Stokes, Haseeb Hameed, CR Woakes, Rory Burns, Dawid Malan

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The weather will be sunny on most of the days with days four and five covered in the clouds.. on match day. The temperature will range between 35°C and 13°C with winds blowing at 18kmh to 26kmh. The drop-in pitch of Adelaide is flat and is heaven for the batters. Spinners get some action from the pitch in the last days of the Tests.

Venue Details

The match will be played at the Adelaide Oval. This will be the 80th Test hosted by the venue. The scenic ground has seen some mesmerizing battles including West Indies’ 1-run escape against Australia in 1993.

Toss: To Bat

In 79 Tests played so far, the team batting first has won 38 times while the team batting second has come out with 22 favourable outcomes. The average first innings score is 385 (31 more than the second innings). A team winning the toss should bat first.