The Ashes series has started!

Well, not yet, but nevertheless, the two teams have met on the field in an albeit made-for-tv kind of Twenty20 contest. To start things off, my take on it is that the Aussies are playing 'possum' yet again just like they seem to do at the start of every series, home or away. Apparently this is not something new that they do and they have been doing it for ages. In the warm up games, they allow some 'rising star' in the opponent's camp hog the limelight and then when the 'star' is included in the opposing team, they pick him off repeatedly. It is almost as if the opposing team has to play with 10 players. Last time around when India visited Australia, S.Ramesh scored a ton of runs in the warm up games and looked like a sure inclusion into the Indian squad. Ganguly, and I think very rightly, did not take the bait. Ramesh sat out the whole series leaving Chopra and Sehwag to open the innings-and what a massive success THAT was!

Interestingly, this time around the Aussies don't seem to have picked their victim. Atleast not yet. The Twenty20 game was interesting in the sense that the Aussies seem to have crumbled completely. Was it the result of them not taking it too seriously or strategy, I cannot tell. Was the 'victim' this time the whole English team? With two consecutive wins under their belt against the Aussies, the English team must be feeling confident. What does it take to tip them over into over confidence?

All that being said, I still consider the English team to be strong underdogs. And I am definitely rooting for the underdogs.