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The war of words before the Ashes is escalating further, with ex-England bowler Stuart Broad stating that England will confront "probably the worst Australian team since 2010" during their tour this season.

David Warner's Confident Forecast Answered by Doubt

The former England bowler's claim came as a reply to David Warner – a long-time Ashes rival – predicting a clean sweep for the home side. "If the captain [Pat Cummins] doesn’t play, they might win one game," Warner commented.

Australia have not lost a Ashes match on home soil since England’s 3-1 victory in 2010-11. The subsequent 5-0 whitewash in the following series – following seven defeats in their previous nine Tests – was followed by 4-0 Ashes triumphs in the 2017-18 and 2021-22 campaigns.

Team Uncertainty and Injury Worries for Australia

However, the top-ranked Test team, who have lost only one of their past 13 bilateral series, enter the upcoming assignment with questions over the composition of their top order and the health of Pat Cummins, who is unlikely to feature in the opening match at Perth because of a back issue.

"It’s very, very difficult to win in Australia as an England side, or any visiting team," Broad remarked during his podcast. "Australia have to be massive favourites."

"Australia are under the greatest expectations because they’re expected to win, they’re formidable in home conditions, but they’ve got question marks over their squad and question marks over their captain’s fitness. You wouldn’t be outlandish in thinking – it’s actually not an opinion, it's a reality – it is likely the weakest Aussie lineup since the 2010 era. Meanwhile, it's the strongest English team since 2010. So those things match up to the fact that it’s going to be a brilliant contest."

Comparison to 2010-11 Tour

"Australia have been highly stable for a long period of time that you just knew who was going to open the innings, who would bat, what bowlers there were, and they don’t have that. It’s very much a comparable scenario to 2010-11 when England went and won there. The fact of the matter is Australia generally have to be bad to be defeated at home and England have to be very good. The English have a solid opportunity of performing exceptionally and Australia have a decent chance of being bad."

Selection Dilemma for the Visitors

A key question for England remains their selection at No 3, with Pope and Bethell vying for the role. Alastair Cook, whose prolific scoring paved the way for the visitors' series victory 15 years ago, believes it would be "strange" for Stokes' team to abandon Pope, who has been a consistent at number three for the past three seasons.

"I would bat Pope at three," said Cook. "I think it’s quite an easy decision. They have a player who has been part of this buildup for three or four years. He has led the team, he’s played some extraordinary innings for the national side and he scores centuries. He understands how to score hundreds in first-class cricket. If you get rid of him now, I think that changes the whole dynamic of the foundation they've established over the recent years."

Although praising Jacob Bethell as "a hugely gifted cricketer", Cook added: "It would be a major risk [to pick him] because if that doesn’t work where do you move back to, a player you recently discarded? They’ve invested so much in people like Ollie Pope and [Zak] Crawley that it would seem such a strange thing to change it now."

Captaincy Change and Broadcast Crew

Ollie Pope has been replaced by Harry Brook as England’s vice-captain but, according to Cook, that will "take the pressure off" the Surrey right-hander.

"They’ve been proactive on that, thinking in case of an injury to Stokes, they have a player in Harry Brook who has taken the [captaincy of the] one-day side and it's evident that he seems to be well suited to it. That will just take the pressure off. I don’t think undermine him. Certainly it will have disappointed him because whenever you're removed from a leadership role it wouldn’t be ideal, but I doubt it diminishes his standing."

Alastair Cook will be in Australia as part of the broadcast team of the Ashes, and will be accompanied by former Ashes champions Finn and Graeme Swann as on-the-ground pundits. The network will offer a dedicated commentary stream but will operate a hybrid model, with commentators Alastair Eykyn and Hatch based remotely in the UK, while the trio deliver expert analysis from Australia. Ebony Rainford-Brent is also part of the commentary team working off-site, with the live presentation to be hosted by Ives.