The oldest rivalry of the Game is this Ashes rivalry. It is the famous test series played between the cricket majors Australia and England. The most exciting Ashes encounter so far has been the 2005 series in which England won 2-1. It was full of nail biting finishes and every session proceeded with high drama and thrill.

But the Ashes series of 2006 was purely dominated by Australia as they won it 5-0 convincingly. This series saw the departure of Australian greats like McGrath and Shane Warne, as they retired from international cricket. So this time around the Australians are without Mathew Hayden, Justin Langer, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Andrew Symonds that won the previous Ashes series. The Aussies are usually adept in playing mind games before the start of a series but this time the English took their chance saying they had a good chance to win as Australia were weakened by the departure of their Test specialists. They heavily rely on their skipper Ponting to deliver with the bat and Mitchell Johnson to rip through the English batting order.

As a fan my choice would be Australia this time to win the series as England are unpredictable as they depend on individuals. But Australia can play as a team and win from no-hope situations. They are also back from a Test series victory on South African soil and they will surely be waiting to do the same to England on their soil.