The 2015 Ashes test match will take place with five matches scattered around the months of July and August. The first match will be from July 8-12 at SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff. The second test will be on July 16-20 at Lord’s in London. There will be three more tests after that with locations in Birmingham, Nottingham and London.
Australia is a -130 favorite to win the 2015 Ashes series. England had +175 odds to win it this year. There are also +500 odds that there will be a draw between the two sides.
Australia swept the last edition of the Ashes. This came after England had won three straight Ashes events. This was the third whitewash by the Australians in the history of the Ashes. England has never been able to pull off this feat.
The English cricket team will be led this time around by Ian Bell. He has competed in 28 matches against Australia and has nearly 1,800 runs. However, his high score is only 115, a number that is smaller than many of his other totals.
The Australian team has Michael Clarke as its main captain. He has attained 28 centuries in the test matches that he has performed in. These include seven that were against the English side.
Steve Smith is also expected to be a major figure for the Australian team as well. While he has only competed in 26 test matches, he already has eight centuries with three of them coming against England and four coming against India. This includes one test from earlier this year against India that entailed him getting a total of 117 runs.
The potential for the Australian team to compete well in the 2015 Ashes will be something to watch for. There is still the possibility for England to be stronger and to hang in there. It will be appealing to see what will go along as the series of matches moves along.