King of Stats – all the numbers ahead of the Ashes

The Ashes are finally upon us and the England 5-0 whitewash over Australia is being firmly supported, backed in from 25/1 to 12/1.

However, this has not made the final line-up of the King of Stats and in fact there are reasons to suggest that this bet could go down the pan in the first Test at Trent Bridge.

7 – The number of Test matches that England have gone since winning the opening match of an Ashes series. Given that only one of the last 11 Tests to take place at Trent Bridge have ended in a draw too, there could be some mileage in Australia taking the opener here at 4/1.

39 – James Anderson can rightfully call Trent Bridge one of his favourite grounds as he has taken 39 wickets in his six Test matches in Nottingham. Interestingly, in three of these six encounters he has finished with at least a five-wicket haul in the first innings. It is 11/2 he takes at least five wickets in the opening innings of the first Test this time.

2 – In two of the last three Ashes instalments, Australia’s top series wicket-taker had begun the series at a double-figure price – Stuart Clark in 2006/07 and Ben Hilfenhaus in 2009. Jackson Bird is 10/1 in this market this time and in his only two Tests to date against Sri Lanka, he took his 11 wickets at an average of 16.18.

38 – If looking solely at the last 10 Test matches of each England bowler individually, no player has taken more wickets than the 38 amassed by Steven Finn. Although his place isn’t secure, Finn could be worthy of some interest at 6/1 to be England’s top series wicket-taker.

34 – In his last 34 innings across 19 Tests, Ian Bell’s only century has arrived on a flat pitch in India. He only has a single career 100 in 31 Test innings with Australia too. 6/5 is a fair price that he ends this Ashes without adding to his century count.

233 – Phil Hughes has not scored more than 233 runs in any of his last nine Test series for Australia and averages only 17 against England. Therefore, the 5/6 on offer for Hughes’ total series runs to be 270 or less looks more than solid.

2 – Brad Haddin has only played in two previous Ashes series, scoring 278 in six innings in 2009 and then 360 in nine innings in 2010. Recent contributions of 38 and 52 not out against Somerset suggest he’s in reasonable form and he looks a strong option at 5/6 to score over 255.5 runs in this series.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.