Held in 5 Australian cities, during the Australian summer (or English winter), the England boys were set to defend the Ashes in a country where they last won an Ashes series almost 25 years prior to this series. Coming in to the Ashes, both teams preparations could not have been more awful. Despite hammering Pakistan in an infamous series 3-1 in tests, 2-0 in Twenty20's and 3-2 in ODI's, the cloud always lingered whether the Pakistani tourists gave a 100% effort. Even then, the English batting was prone to the odd collapse (excluding Trott) and the England bowlers looked ineffective at times (excluding Swann). On the other extreme, Australia had come off a 2-0 test ...  Read the complete review