May creaks into June. The first block of the County Championship is in the can, the sun’s meek rays gather a little more strength and the damp English loam begins to sweat. So too the collective palms of the England cricket fan. A conjoined pulse quickens as thoughts, daydreams, hopes and fears become inordinately focused on that first ball at Edgbaston in three weeks’ time. That’s for the men. England’s women get under way at Trent Bridge seven days later – a first five-day Test on home soil. Two Ashes ding-dongs running side by side. Twice the action and for now, double the chatter.
We’ve had Ollie Robinson talk about handing Pat Cummins’s boys a “good hiding” and Lauren Winfield-Hill declare that Meg Lanning’s Australian side – one of the greatest teams in modern sport – have “scars too”, adding for good measure that: “They can wobble, they can be fractured.” The response from Australian quarters has been disconcertingly muted. Even Glenn McGrath was seen to heavily caveat his customary 5-0 pre-series prediction this time around.
