ASHES PREDICTIONS: MOEEN MUST EMBRACE EXTRA RESPONSIBILITY

Runs from Cook, Khawaja and England need Moeen to have a career-defining series

With the Ashes Test series closing in, we asked our writers for their predictions - from the obvious to the obscure.

Today it's the turn of social media manager Owen Riley, who expects runs from Alastair Cook and Usman Khawaja, and thinks England need Moeen to have a career-defining series.

Result: 2-2

 Here’s how it’s going to play out…

• England to hit the ground running and get a result at Brisbane. Breaking a 31-year hoodoo at the ‘Gabbatoir’ may be asking a bit much.
• The day/night Test could be a leveller. Jimmy and Stuart to get the pink ball moving under lights as England take a 1-0 series lead at Adelaide.
• Australia to fight back winning in the WACA’s last dance and the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
• Root’s clan to spoil the party in Sydney. 

Right, I’m off to burn a tenner.

Leading run-scorer: Alastair Cook

England’s top order are going to have to stand tall and put on some serious runs if they are not to be blown away. That grit comes from the top and what better man than Alastair Cook to lead by example.  A gentleman who could be on the receiving end of a grenade and he’d still watch it watch glide safely by his off stump without his heartbeat rising. To expect another 766 may be an unreasonable ask, but if he can get through some opening spells, settle into his rhythm, his own blinkered world, shut off from the hoards of lager-gargling fans in the stands, expect some match-winning knocks.

^{England need another Cook tour de force Down Under}

Leading wicket-taker: Mitchell Starc

Tight call but Josh Hazlewood’s recent injury may shift a few extra overs Starc’s way. The left-armer has recently taken career-best first-class figures of eight for 73 for New South Wales and claimed two hat-tricks in a match against Western Australia.

Mitchell Starc ripped through the Redbacks to claim career-best figures of 8-73 in the #SheffieldShield opener: https://t.co/I7peBUcfTq pic.twitter.com/LgScO6GE1Y

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) October 29, 2017

Overachiever: Usman Khawaja

David Warner and Steve Smith will inevitably be singled out as the two key men for England to keep quiet, but Usman Khawaja will have a key role to play batting at first drop, protecting his skipper.

Last winter, against South Africa and Pakistan, Khawaja scored 581 runs at 58.10, scoring one century and five fifties. The Pakistan-born left-hander averages 63.73 in Australia compared to 27.21 away from home.

Looked very impressive, scoring 40 and 122 for Queensland in a recent Sheffield Shield match in which no other player passed fifty.

^{Khawaja looks set to bat first drop}

Underachiever: Steve Smith

The harder they fall and all that… 

Smith has been an absolute behemoth since taking over as captain, especially at home. He averages 77.40 and has scored seven hundreds in 15 Tests as captain on Australian soil. Can he keep up such relentless run-scoring? If England can take out the skipper, Australia’s ship might just start sinking.

England’s trump card: Moeen Ali

Can Moeen back up the seamers, can he out-bowl Nathan Lyon? Perhaps wickets will come through guile, or simply that Australia look to be aggressive against Moeen and get it all wrong, but his skills will be crucial.

There will be Stokes-shaped crater in England’s middle-order and Moeen needs to try to fill it. Aesthetically he is one of the best going, but in hostile conditions it will be an acid test, batting higher in the order. Can he replace lower-order flourish with middle-order grit when required?

^{Moeen must embrace extra responsibility}

Australia’s trump card: Pat Cummins

Could have easily put him in the ‘underachiever’ category such is the billing he is getting for someone who has played five Tests in six years. 

Cummins admits that a full Test series will be no easy task: “I've played back-to-back Tests a couple of times now and I've felt really good, but five Tests in a summer is pretty brutal”.

However, if the seemingly-brittle nuts and bolts holding him together allow a fully-functioning five Tests on home wickets, Cummins' raw pace could cause havoc.

^{Can Cummins live up to the hype?}

Water carrier: Tom Curran

A replacement for a replacement. Valuable experience for the Surrey man regardless, but will he be charged with anything beyond keeping his teammates hydrated?

Most catches: Alastair Cook

Shelled a couple against West Indies at Lord’s but the former captain has the most catches (153) of any Test player still playing the game. Stationed in the cordon, the Kookaburra is bound to fly into his palms.

Total dropped catches: 12 (proper spills)

“The fielding always concerns me. The catching has been terrible. We are certainly not going to go [to Australia] and win anything dropping that many.” - The words of Trevor Bayliss after that Lord’s Test.

After putting down several hundred against West Indies I can’t see England’s fielding foibles continue to such an extent, but there are bound to be some spills along the way.

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