Australia's destroyer of so many England batting line-ups delivers his 10 predictions for the Ashes
1 It will be another Australia whitewash
I'm still going with the 5-0. I can't really say anything else now, I guess I've dug a bit of a hole for myself, but I've got total faith in our boys. It should be a good series. The games should all be relatively close, with Australia just getting home in every Test.2 The youngsters will come good
I am happy with the selectors right now. They've gone for a 17-man squad. I'm not sure they've ever done that before in a home series, but if you're a young cricketer in Australia it must be a pretty exciting time. If you do well you can start putting your hand up for the Australian team. I think there's a good mix there.3 Ricky Ponting will hold it all together
I believe, 100%, Ricky Ponting should still be captain of this team. With those young players you need someone of Rick's experience. I don't think they really could have done anything else. I've got huge of respect for Ricky as a person and as a captain. He will always be a quality batsman. I thought he'd retire as the top run scorer of all time, although Sachin [Tendulkar] may now have put that beyond him.4 The ball means the Aussie attack will have the edge
It's very close between the two seam attacks. If the series was in England you would favour the England attack. But in Australia the wickets don't quite do as much and you can give me a Dukes ball to bowl with any day. The Dukes favours the bowlers whereas the Kookaburra favours the batsmen. The Dukes has a big seam on it. It might swing as it gets older, while the Kookaburra will start off swinging and go soft. I averaged six wickets a Test with it, and four with the Kookaburra. In the past, English bowlers haven't adjusted and that's been the big difference. It might be this time, too.5 England's McGrath-like seamers still have to prove themselves ?
By McGrath-like I guess you mean they try to bore people to death. I've been impressed by both Broad and Finn. Broad has definitely shown that he's a quality bowler. I haven't seen a lot of Finn, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how he goes over here. Both these guys have impressed me, especially Broady. Jimmy [Anderson] is interesting. He's a great bowler. You've seen what he can do on English wickets. But he's not done it over here. To me, that will be the test.6 ? and they'll struggle to bowl like I did over here
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to keep it simple. The two weapons I had were accuracy and bounce. I could land the ball where I wanted. I don't really know where that accuracy came from. I put plenty of hours in the nets but it was always the feel to me, rather than looking at a spot on the wicket. I only looked at getting a batsman out in three ways: bowled, lbw or caught by the keeper or slips. And because of my accuracy I always had the fielders there. I didn't need extra guys on the leg side or at cover in case I bowled a half-volley. I wanted those guys catching.7 Strauss will be the key wicket
The captain was always the guy we went for, so Straussy would be a big one. The two openers are really big targets. And I always enjoyed bowling to Belly. I always felt I had a chance there. KP was a thorn in our side, but he's very much a confidence player and he hasn't done that much of late so maybe you'd look at him, too. But the key is the two openers. If they fall early, Australia can really make inroads and expose that middle order.8 Johnson is pivotal for Australia
Mitchell Johnson is a wicket-taker so you want him to be as aggressive as possible opening the bowling. You can build pressure with Ben Hilfenhaus, who will swing the ball, but Johnson is the main threat. I'd also go with Dougie Bollinger, who I've been very impressed with in Australian conditions. It'll be interesting to see if they give Xavier Doherty an opportunity. I always liked to have a spinner but it's pretty easy to say that when that spinner is Shane Warne.9 Reports of Australia's decline are exaggerated
For my generation it was an incredible era to be involved in Australian cricket. There were so many great players. As a bowler you only had to look at your slip cordon and see Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor and all those guys. But I think Australia have done pretty well since then. When teams lose one or two major players it has a huge effect on them. Australia lost six or seven major players, guys who played 100-plus Test matches, and yet it's not so long ago they were winning 13 Tests in a row.10 No one over here will underestimate England
I always had respect for the England teams we played against. The last thing you can do is think they're rubbish cricketers and it's going to be a walkover. But we had a decent team and we felt if we played as well as we could then no one would get near us.Glenn McGrath will be part of Sky Sports' team for live and high definition coverage of the Ashes tour from 11pm on Wednesday 24 November on Sky Sports HD1. Go to www.skysports.com/ashesanywhere
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/nov/17/the-ashes-2010-glenn-mcgrath
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