England to win Ashes …. not really !

The long build up to this most awaited Ashes has begun and as per the pundits, this England team has better chance of winning the tournament than any other England side ever had. I would like to gainsay this statement. I think, “this England side has better chance of winning a non-dead rubber match than any other England side ever had” would be an apt statement. The reason why the cricketing air is filled with the hype of ‘England winning’ is because of two reasons. Firstly, at this stage, this England side acquires an undisputed number two spot in the cricketing world. So we can say that Australia is by far the number one side, England is number two by some distance and then the rest follow. I don’t think that any other England side has ever been at an emphatic number two position just before the Ashes series. However, the matter of fact is that the gap between the two sides is still huge. It is surely less than other that on occasions but it is huge nevertheless. Secondly, this edition will be played on English soil and home advantage is always a factor. However, the side which can come to India and win in India, obviously, is not affected much by what happens in the stands.
Another important factor which makes me believe that England don’t have a chance of winning this one is the number of match winners. In Australia, without exaggerating at all, there are 11 match winners (I don’t think anyone will dare to disagree with this). In England there are 2 or at the most 3. Flintoff and Harmison are the 2 guys which can win matches single-handedly. Apart from them I feel that the young guy Strauss is a gem of a player. But apart from these three one cannot say that there are any other ‘match-winners’. There are lots of good players but one can’t really say that people like Vaughan or Thorpe are going to win matches against a fully fit Australian attack.
So I personally think that England can pull of a surprise by winning a non-dead rubber match but in a series consisting of 5 matches England are always going to end second best to the mighty Aussies. If this would have been a one off match or a 3 match series then I might have given England a chance but in a 5 match series, the strongest team will emerge as the champion and one doesn’t need to know rocket science to tell which is stronger of the two sides.