Glenn McGrath: Ashes whitewash is on if Australia win at Edgbaston

ROB THIRLWELL: Glenn McGrath has never been shy when it comes to making an Ashes prediction. This time, however, his forecast comes with a caveat as Australia seek to overcome a poor recent record at Edgbaston

You can normally put your mortgage on Glenn McGrath’s prediction of an Ashes whitewash for Australia, but this time he has taken a different stance.

He believes England’s top three are vulnerable, with Australia having almost too many pace bowlers to choose from. A victory for the tourists at Edgbaston in the first Test starting on Thursday, and we are back in 5-0 territory.

“I’m always happy to make a prediction, but I think I’ve always made a rod for my own back when I’ve said that Australia will win 5-0 or 4-0,” he told The Cricketer.

“So I thought I would try a slightly different tactic this time, so I’m just going to wait and see how that first Test goes. If Australia do well and take a victory away from it I’ll be straight back to 5-0.”

McGrath hopes that Australia’s poor record in Birmingham - their last win there came in 2001 - will not be playing on Australian minds.

“It’s been a good ground for England, they have done well there. It’s similar to the Gabba in Australia in that Australia haven’t lost there for a long, long time. It’s always important when you start at a ground you do well at.

“I think in 2001 we won that first Test there [Edgbaston], but in 1997 England won there, they dominated and won by nine wickets. I don’t think they’ll be thinking about that too much, the Australians will just want to get out there and start well, bowl well in the conditions, but they need to bat well and hopefully learn from the last series.”

McGrath is hopeful that the Australian pace attack have the capacity to get on top of the English batsmen for the whole series, especially if the conditions are helpful for seam bowling.

“Pat Cummins is bowling incredibly well and I’ve liked him for a long time, he has a great attitude and you can see that from the way he approaches his cricket, so he is going to have a big series.

^{Glenn McGrath took 157 Test wickets against England at an average 20.92}

“James Pattinson is back in the mix and he’s been bowling extremely well, so the selectors will be keen to play him. We will have to wait to see what the pitch is like up at Edgbaston.

“I am also looking forward to seeing Mitchell Starc bowling, he’s as good as anyone in the world when the ball is swinging. I’ve always been a fan of Josh Hazlewood.

"Obviously he played in the last Ashes series here in England (2015). Sadly he didn’t bowl as well as I thought he would have, but hopefully he’s learnt from that. Australia are in a good position with so many good fast bowlers to choose from.”

Jason Roy has played only one Test, when he made five and 72 against Ireland, and has limited experience of opening in red-ball cricket. McGrath believes he could be successful in the longer form of the game however.

“Roy has done well in the one-day game, and he made runs against Ireland the other day. But he will need to adapt his game, he can’t just go out there and play one-day-style cricket in Tests. He’s a strokemaker, he goes out there and plays his shots, so if he can adapt his game to Test cricket then he will do well.

“The English top order haven’t been playing with a lot of confidence this year having been beaten in the West Indies and the Irish match the other day probably could have gone better.

"All these things have an influence on your confidence, but on the other hand they’ve just won the World Cup so hopefully they can take that confidence into the Test game and handle the expectation of the English public.”

Despite the struggles the English top order have had, McGrath wasn’t too surprised when England named Rory Burns, Roy and Joe Denly in the squad for the first Test.

He said: “I think you’ve got to stick with who you think are your top three, I’m not sure there’s anyone else out there performing well enough to be thrown into the mix for the first Test of such a massive series.

“If they do struggle in both innings they may do something about selection, England will be hoping they can repay their faith in the selectors.”

Glenn McGrath is working with online trading broker ThinkMarkets to encourage more young people to get into sport through the Think2020 initiative. For more information please visit www.thinkmarkets.com