Still riding high after the thrilling, fortunate Cricket World Cup victory, England will be looking to replicate that home-success in the forthcoming Ashes series against Australia.

So it’s time to take a Spread Betting Perspective on the competition, and look at the hosts chances of doing the double!

Can England do a rare cricketing double?
The hosts have been victorious in 4 of the last 5 Ashes, England’s Oz success in 2010/11 the sole outlier. That explains why England are at a win the series binary spread of 47.6-54.5, compared to Australia’s 33.3-40.

Interestingly, there has also only been one series during that period not to feature at least one drawn test – back in 2013/14, when the Aussies absolutely destroyed their visitors 5-0. With that in mind, the Drawn Matches spread is at 0.7-0.85.

If you think Joe Root’s lads can ride the wave of their World Cup triumph to a clean sweep, then Spreadex are offering an England 5-0 Correct Score Index spread of 14-17 – where you receive 25 points for the correct result and a bonus 50 points for the exact score – compared to just 8-11 for the Aussies to pull off the same result.

More likely is that England encounter defeat at some point, with Spreadex offering England 4-1 at 16-19, 3-1 at 17-20 and 2-1 at 14-17.


Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na – Batsman!
The average number of runs managed by the top runs scorer in the last 5 Ashes series comes in at 609.2, a figure dragged higher by the 766 posted by Alastair Cooke in 2010/11. Stripped of Cookie’s total – which was the greatest haul since Mark Taylor’s 839 in 1989 – and the average comes in at a slightly more manageable 570.

It is also worth pointing out that, though England have won 3 of the last 5 series, the top run scorer has more often than not come from Oz. That includes consecutive golden bats for Steve Smith, who makes his Test return this summer after his ball-tampering-related ban.

Smith sits atop the Batsman Series Runs Index at a spread of 435-455, narrowly ahead of Joe Root at 425-455 and David Warner at 400-420, both of whom were their countries respective top scorers at the Cricket World Cup (Warner also took the honour at the 2013/14 Ashes).


Bowl me over
Spreadex’s Bowler Series Index sees 10 points given for every wicket taken, with a bonus 25 points for a 5-wicket haul in an innings.

James Anderson sits atop the index at 238-253. Across the last 5 Ashes the Lancashire star has managed an average 17.4 wickets per series, a figure hurt by the 10 he managed in 2015, when he was out of the 4th Test with an injury.

Not too far behind Anderson is Australia’s Mitchell Starc, at 228-243. The 29-year old has only appeared in 3 Ashes – it would have been 4 if not for injury in 2013/14 – and has steadily increased in haul series-by-series, culminating in a 21 wicket total in 2017/18.

Up until the last series Stuart Broad was the height of consistency in terms of his wicket totals: 22 in 2013, 21 in 2013/14 and 21 in 2015. However, he slipped down the series table in 2017/18, managing just 11 wickets – less than half that of leader Pat Cummins’s 23. That leaves the Nottingham native at a Bowler Series Index spread of 208-223 against the Aussie vice-captain’s 218-233.