Australia batter Marnus Labushagne's reign at the helm of ICC Test rankings came to an end with England's Joe Rot sealing his place at the top after the first Ashes 2023 Test match
With the captaincy of Ben Stokes and the leadership of head coach Brendon McCullum, England have played a new brand of cricket. And Hussain thinks that with this team draws are not of the picture.
The hosts will be aiming to avenge their 4-0 loss in the 2021-22 season. Australia too will be aiming to win their first Ashes series in England in over 20 years.
Australia's star batter has a superb record against England and will likely face some highly-attacking fields and some unusual bowling tactics from a team who have been creative with their strategies under skipper Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
Smith and Head were the third highest-scorer for Australia in the WTC 2021-23 cycle behind Marnus Labuschagne (1,576 runs in 20 matches at an average of 52.53, with five centuries and five fifties).
After their ICC World Test Championship title win against India in the final by 209 runs at The Oval, Australia made history by becoming the first-ever team to clinch all major ICC trophies. In this squad that dominated Test cricket worldwide, a lot of players were in their mid to late 30s.
After dominating India over the course of five days Australia secured their maiden World Test Championship 2023 title on Sunday at the Oval, London. India succumbed to a score of 234 in 63.3 overs while chasing 444, with Mohammad Shami as the last player standing with a score of 13(8)*.
Following his side's loss to Australia in the final of the ICC World Test Championship at The Oval, India skipper Rohit Sharma proposed a best-of-three final in the next cycle to decide the winner of the coveted trophy, saying it could be hosted anywhere in the world, not just in England.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey, in the company of speedster Mitchell Starc, drove Australia's lead in the opening session of Day 4 of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval, after the early dismissals of set batters Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green.