Ian Chappell backs Australia to win the Ashes irrespective of Ben Stokes

Former Australian captain and renowned cricket analyst/commentator, Ian Chappell backed Team Australia to come out triumphant in the forthcoming Ashes series down under starting last week of November. Chappell in his recent column wrote that there’s no stopping the Australians provided their seamers remain fit throughout the entirety of the series.

It is expected that the Australians would go in with a four-pronged pace attack featuring, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson. Except for Cummins, the other three seamers have struggled with their fitness of-late.

Chappell then went on to claim that presence of Ben Stokes in the squad would increase England’s chances of retaining the urn. The former Australian skipper tagged Stokes as the difference maker while citing out the loopholes in the batting order in both the teams.

Stokes is a serious difference maker: Chappell

“With Ben Stokes in the team, England has a realistic chance of retaining the Ashes. It’s not only Stokes’ skill with the bat, ball and in the field that makes a difference to England but also his competitive aura. His match-winning capabilities drag his teammates along with him and because he’s not over-awed by an opponent it helps to boost any England player who feels over-matched in Australia. He is a serious difference maker,” wrote Ian Chappell according to his column for Hindustan Times.

“England’s batting, particularly the top order has been an on-going problem for some time. This has come about partly through misguided selection, which has, in turn, led to a badly balanced batting order,” lashed out Chappell at the selectors of the ECB.

“Australia has similar problems with their batting in that they are heavily reliant on two players — David Warner and Steve Smith. However, the support line-up is more settled than England’s, provided Usman Khawaja continues to deliver success at home from the No 3 spot,” added Chappell pointing out the shortcomings in the Australian lineup.