The 2023 Ashes is set to be one of the most exciting in history, with a resurgent England taking on Test champions Australia.
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have led England to 11 victories in 13 matches since their appointments as captain and coach last summer, while Australia cemented their status as the best five-day team in the world by thrashing India by 209 runs in the World Test Championship final.
Here, the PA news agency picks out five key stats ahead of the five-match series.
Travball
Freed up by Stokes’ and McCullum’s ultra-positive mindset, England’s batters account for seven of the eight fastest strike rates among players with more than 500 runs to their name since the New Zealander was installed as coach on May 12, 2022.
Australia batter Travis Head is the only non-Englishman in the list, with his strike rate of 83.75 runs per 100 balls ranking fourth behind Harry Brook, Ben Duckett and Jonny Bairstow.
Stokes described Head as “so hard to bowl to” in the previous Ashes in Australia, in which he scored 357 runs – the most by anyone on either side – from just 415 balls faced.
He has maintained that form ever since, most recently in a trademark counter-attacking innings of 163 from 174 deliveries against India.
Head’s performances have seen him climb to third spot in the Test batting rankings, behind countrymen Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith.
Joe Root is the highest-ranked England batter in sixth.
The last time three batters from the same team were first, second and third in the Test rankings was in December 1984, when Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, and Larry Gomes from West Indies were at the top.
All out attack
While England’s cavalier batting under Stokes and McCullum has attracted lots of attention, their bowlers have been equally destructive by dismissing the opposition in 25 consecutive innings.
This is their longest run since 1978 and 1979, when England bowled out 26 successive opponents in a sequence that brought series wins against Pakistan and New Zealand, plus a 5-1 Ashes success in Australia.
The wickets have been shared among 14 players during the current run, with veteran seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad – as well as the injured Jack Leach – leading the way on 45 apiece.
Anderson has the best overall figures having claimed his scalps at an average of 17.62, ahead of Ollie Robinson who has 27 wickets at 21.25.
Matthew Potts has chipped in with 23 victims, ahead of captain and Durham team-mate Stokes on 20.
Then comes a bit of a gap to Root on nine wickets and Mark Wood – who has only played two Tests under Stokes and McCullum – on eight.
The overlooked Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks took seven and six wickets in Pakistan respectively, while Josh Tongue claimed a five-for on debut against Ireland at Lord’s.
Jamie Overton (two), Brook (one) and Matt Parkinson (one) have also contributed, while there have been five run-outs and one retirement through injury.
Stokes fitness worries
Stokes’ bowling capability remains somewhat shrouded in mystery ahead of the first Test.
England’s captain has been recovering from a troublesome left knee and – despite insisting he is ready to bowl – has sent down only nine overs in six Test innings so far in 2023.
He also bowled only one over for Chennai Super Kings in this year’s Indian Premier League and was described by coach Stephen Fleming as “batting cover” during the second half of the tournament.
Stokes’ all-round abilities are key to the balance of England’s side, particularly given his preference for fast, flat pitches which could result in bowlers having to get through lots of overs.
Meanwhile, Australia all-rounder Cameron Green – who is playing in an Ashes in England for the first time – has enjoyed a promising start to his Test career.
He has lost only three of the 21 matches he has played in.
Indomitable Lyon
Nathan Lyon has played a remarkable 98 consecutive Tests for Australia, the joint-sixth longest run in history.
The 35-year-old off-spinner – who took four for 41 to help dismiss India in their second innings and clinch the World Test Championship – has not missed a single game since sitting out the opening two Tests of the 2013 Ashes in England.
While Lyon is unlikely to break the record held by former England captain Sir Alastair Cook (159), he is already out on his own among bowlers.
All-rounders Garry Sobers (85), Kapil Dev (66) and Ian Botham (65) have been surpassed, although India’s Dev can consider himself unlucky not to hold the bowlers’ record having missed only one Test in his 131-match career.
Lyon’s omnipresence is in stark contrast with his opposite number Moeen Ali, who is returning to red-ball cricket after nearly two years away as an emergency replacement for the injured Leach.
Moeen admitted this week that he has “never been able to hold an end up” and the stats back this up – his economy rate of 3.61 runs per over is far worse than Lyon’s 2.92.
However, he has a better strike rate than his Australian counterpart, taking a wicket every 60.7 deliveries compared with Lyon’s 63.7.
Absent friend
This will be the first Ashes series since Shane Warne’s sudden death in March 2022.
Warne will be forever synonymous with the urn, having taken more wickets against England than any other player in Test history (195).
The Australian introduced himself to Ashes cricket in 1993 by dismissing Mike Gatting with his very first ball. The delivery – which pitched outside leg and clipped the top of off – was subsequently dubbed the “ball of the century”.
Warne went on to claim 129 Ashes wickets in England at an average of 21.94, compared with 66 scalps at 25.81 in his native Australia.
He won 24 of the 36 Ashes Tests he played in, losing seven and drawing five.
Two of those defeats came in 2005, which was arguably Warne’s greatest Ashes performance despite him finishing on the losing side.
The leg-spinner claimed 40 wickets at an average of 19.92, including six in both innings in the fifth Test at the Oval as Australia tried unsuccessfully to prevent an England series victory.
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
Last Hurrah: Dwayne Bravo to call time on CPL career after this year's edition
Former West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo says this year’s edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) will be his last hurrah as he announced his retirement from the tournament on Saturday.
Bravo, who represents the Trinbago Knight Riders, made the revelation on his Instagram account hours ahead of the franchise’s opening contest against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre, scheduled for 7:00pm.
“It's been a great journey, and I'm looking forward to playing my final professional tournament in front of my Caribbean people," Bravo said in his post.
“TKR is the place where everything started for me and will end with my team,” he added.
The 40-year-old’s post all but indicates the end of a decorated professional career, as he retired from international cricket in 2021 after the T20 World Cup and also announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL) a year later after being part of four title-winning Chennai Super Kings campaigns.
Bravo, known for his flair and skillful batting and bowling, is currently the CPL’s highest wicket-taker with 128 scalps in 103 games at an average of 22.40 and economy rate of 8.69.
In fact, Bravo is the leading wicket-taker in all T20s, with 630 scalps in 578 matches. He has also scored 6,970 runs with the bat.
No doubt the electrifying Trinidad and Tobago stalwart will go down as one of T20's early legends, having played seven World Cups in the format, winning two titles, as well as over 15 franchise league titles. He is the first bowler to get to 500 T20 wickets.
CWI targets domestic T20 competition in 2025 to identify Caribbean representative(s) for 2028 Olympic Games
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr. Kishore Shallow says plans are already afoot to host a domestic T20 competition next year to determine the Caribbean representative(s) for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Shallow, once again welcoming cricket’s return to the Olympic Games, pointed out that his administration is already in dialogue with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) hierarchy to stage the domestic competition in 2025.
Cricket, which last featured at an Olympic Games in 1900, was always set for a long-awaited return to the global multi-sport showpiece, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year confirmed it and four other sports—baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, and squash—for the LA Games.
“To add cricket to the agenda in the next Olympics is certainly going to be something tremendous, as we did in the Commonwealth Games a couple years ago when we had one of our teams representing the females. We at the time chose our original women’s tournament, and the winner at the time was Barbados, so they represented the region,” Shallow said.
“We anticipate something similar will be done unless they tell us all the teams can come and participate, which would be ideal, but it is unlikely for that to happen,” he added.
Shallow also explained that the CPL champions cannot represent the region at the Olympic Games given that the tournament is franchise-based and involves players from other parts of the world.
As such, he revealed that he has engaged CARICOM leaders regarding plans for a domestic T20 competition from which the winner or top finishers would secure the coveted Olympic Games spot(s).
“We have been in discussion with CPL for them to fund a domestic T20 tournament starting next year. I think Miles Bascombe and his team have already scheduled a window for that next year in 2025. Once we are able to have that tournament, then we can use that to determine which team or teams will participate in the Olympics on behalf of CWI,” Shallow shared.
“We can’t use the CPL as it is now because it’s franchises. But in the domestic tournament that we’re having, which will still have a commercial model to it but not to the extent of CPL, but that will more than likely be territories instead of franchises, so we will be able to identify teams,” he noted.
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