The home side, England, has a new Ashes captain in Andrew Strauss and two match-winners in Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. whereas none of the current Australia's fast bowlers have played a test in England .
In a total of 300 Ashes Tests Australia has won in 121 whereas England has won 95.
On the rankings front this is a battle between the No. 1 and No. 5 reams, but for Australia and England it is much more than that. Australia must win this series to keep the No. 1 ICC Test rating.
England (possible) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Graham Onions.Australia (possible) 1 Simon Katich, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Peter Siddle.
Pitch and conditions
Ricky Ponting expects the pitch to have some moisture at the begining, providing "slow-ish seam and trampoline" bounce, but he believes it will change.
England Captain, Andrew Strauss, said it looked like a good pitch, but one that would not offer much pace or bounce. "There will be a little bit in it for everyone," he said, "and that's the sort of wicket we were hoping to see."
The weather has been a bit unpredictable at Cardiff, with rain and sun fighting for attention and more wet conditions are predicted for the end of the week.
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