Gabba to set tone for Ashes

It’s time for the talking to stop.

The Ashes start tomorrow in Brisbane and for both sides it will be important to get off to a good start.

It’s a way of defining how well the series is going to pan out.

If you drop the first Test match it’s very hard to get back into the series.

If that happens you feel the pressure straight away.

I think these sides are evenly matched.

The advantage will be, as always, Australia playing at home.

We play really well on home soil; England don’t travel well. Every time they come to Australia they get beat up quite badly.

If they don’t start well, this could quite easily be 3-0 or 4-0.

If Australia can keep James Anderson and Stuart Broad out there for long periods of time, that’s where it’s going to be really difficult for England.

Australia will feel very confident going into the first Test because they haven’t lost at the Gabba since 1988.

The Gabba suits the Australians’ game plan more than England’s because there should be a lot of pace and bounce early on.

There are many of the England players who haven’t played in an Ashes series let alone batted at the Gabba and I think that’s a big problem for England.

Looking to the rest of the series, both bowling sides are going to be very good and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the top six.

Both teams are going to get knocked over.

These Test matches could be decided on one really good session, one great spell of bowling from say Starc or Cummins who can get three wickets for nothing.

Anderson and Broad also are capable of knocking over the top order, so the pressure will be on Steve Smith and David Warner for the Australians.

If you look at their top order it’s very similar to ours but I think Alastair Cook’s form up the top is a bit of a worry.

Mark Stoneman’s played only a handful of Test matches along with James Vince and Dawid Malan.

It’s a lot of pressure on Cook and Joe Root and the middle order – Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes – so that’s where most of their runs have to come from.

The weakness in Australia’s line-up is that there is no one in the top seven who can bowl.

Sometimes you just need that one person to chip in because you want Cummins to bowl short spells, you want Starc to bowl short spells.

Hazlewood coming off an injury is going to have to bowl a lot of overs along with Lyon and outside that there is no one.

Smith won’t want to take a risk on bowling himself or maybe Warner.

If the game starts to get into day five sometimes you just like that one person that can bowl in the top of the order, an all-rounder to give the fast bowlers a rest.

We don’t have that at the moment.

That’s the only real Achilles heel for the Australians.

Inside Cricket will preview the Ashes with guests Allan Border, Sir Ian Botham, Mark Waugh and Steve Smith. tonight 6.30pm (AEST) Fox Sports Channel 503