After former England fast bowler Stuart Broad called the current Australian side the worst since the 2010-11, England fast bowling consultant and former New Zealand pacer Tim Southee has come up with opposing views, saying there is never “a bad Australian team.”
“I don’t think there’s ever a bad Australian cricket team. Our focus is firmly on what we’re trying to do. I think the quality of (England’s) side that’s going out to Australia is brilliant,” Southee was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
Southee is optimistic about the series, calling it to be an absolute cracker. “It should be an absolute cracker, that series. Not only (are) English and Australian people looking forward to it, I think the whole cricket world is,” he added.
England and Australia will play the five-match Ashes series starting from the Perth Test but before the English side are due to travel to New Zealand for a while ball series where they will play three T20Is followed by as many One-Day Internationals. This weekend also marks the first time Southee is going up against his country but he has relished working once more alongside Brendon McCullum, his former Black Caps captain and now England head coach.
“It will be strange but I’m looking forward to it,” Southee replied when assessing his role in the away dressing room. I’ve enjoyed playing under Brendon as a player, and to be sharing a dressing room again with him in a different capacity has been really enjoyable. It was too good not to take up,” he said.
What did Stuart Broad say about the Australian team?
“It’s probably the worst Australian team since 2010 when England last won, and it’s the best English team since 2010,” Broad, told on his BBC Podcast For The Love of Cricket hosted with Jos Buttler. “It’s actually not an opinion, it’s fact. So those things match up to the fact it’s going to be a brilliant Ashes series,” he added.
