AUSTRALIA captain Steve Smith believes his team can capitalise on England’s inexperienced batting line-up in the forthcoming Ashes.
England’s quest to retain the urn begins in Brisbane next month when Joe Root’s men will bid to become the first since the side of 2010/11 to win an Ashes series on Australian soil.
Only four of those who will be the plane – Alastair Cook, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn – were part of that victorious unit, and a significant portion of this squad has limited Test experience.
Opener Mark Stoneman has played in just three Tests, while James Vince and Dawid Malan, who will likely bat at three and five, have a combined 19 innings at this level.
Speaking to the BBC’s Stumped podcast, Smith said: “Dawid Malan and other guys have come in and played, I’m not entirely sure what order they will go with. Mark Stoneman will probably be at the top.
“They do have inexperienced players coming to Australia – hopefully they won’t be equipped for the fast and bouncy tracks compared to England and we can exploit them a little bit.”
England were unable to solve their issues at two, three and five over the summer, which placed extra emphasis on Cook, Root and those batting lower down the order.
“With regards to their batting, Alastair Cook and Joe Root are their two big players that we need to keep quiet,” Smith added. “James Anderson and Stuart Broad are experienced. We need to get those guys bowling a lot of overs – if we do that, hopefully we’ll have some success.”
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