The Ashes has always produced some brilliant cricket over the years with Australia and England sweating it out in the middle for the prestigious little urn. Records go out of the window when the high-status series takes place.

Similarly, the first two Test matches of Ashes 2015 have produced some magical moments with England and Australia having won one game apiece. With the five Test match series tied, the third Test match at Edgbaston in Birmingham is expected to be a riveted contest, which could go either way.

The first Test match witnessed England overpowering Australia, while the Aussies turned the tables around in the second Test by thrashing the home team. Hence, there are no favourites heading into the third Test, which promises a whole lot of action.

The English team headed for the second Test at Lords with full confidence, but the Australians played some superb cricket with a big hundred from Chris Rogers and Steve Smith's double-hundred, which set the tone for an Aussie win. Australia will be expecting a similar batting performance from these top-order batsmen in the third Test.

However, England will be eager to put their embarrassing loss behind and come up with a win to take lead in the series. The second Test witnessed the English top order below par, which was a major drawback after performing decently in the first Test. Only Alistair Cook was impressive scoring 96 runs in the second Test.

The pitch at Edgbaston had some grass when the covers were removed from the 22-yard strip on Monday. Previously, there were even reports, which stated that the England and Wales Cricket Board have asked a slow surface to be prepared so that the Australian pacers do not extract much from the pitch.

Expected Line-up

Australia: Michael Clarke (C), Chris Rogers, David Warner, Steve Smith, Peter Nevill (wk), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.

England: Alastair Cook (C), Adam Lyth, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson.

Complete Schedule

Third Test - England vs Australia

Venue – Edgbaston, Birmingham

Time – 11am local time (3:30pm IST)

Also Read