In the last Ashes, when these two teams faced each other, the series ended in a draw, with Australia retaining the Ashes.
The Test match was won by the Australian side, while the white-ball leg was dominated by the English players.
Heather Knight, the England captain, led her team from six points down to level the series at home.
While the fightback gives this year’s tourists much-needed confidence, Knight believes it will also motivate Australia, who have held the trophy since 2015.
“They’re going to be really tough for us to beat out here in one-day cricket, but we’re really confident with where we’re at,” Knight told reporters at North Sydney Oval on the eve of the first ODI at the same venue. “We’ve had some brilliant wins over the last year, and that 2023 series will give us a lot of confidence.
“We know that the Aussies were probably a bit scarred by that, and they’re going to come out really hard. We’ve got to be prepared for that, have our plans ready, and try to counteract that ourselves.”
The Australian captain, Alyssa Healy, expressed confidence that her side would start the series on a high note, focusing on gaining early points and moving past previous results.
“I think you want to throw the first punch,” Healy said. “You want to get out there and take the first two points—that’s how it goes—and then you can hopefully settle in from there. But I don’t feel like we’ve played one another very often lately, outside of World Cup warm-up games and whatnot.”
“So the opportunity to get out there and sort of feel each other out is an interesting concept. But at the same time, I think we know what we’re going to bring in the one-day format, and, hopefully, we just focus on ourselves tomorrow and go out there and do that.”
England and Australia will play a three-match ODI series, followed by as many T20Is and a one-off Test match.
The ODI series will begin on January 12, the first T20 will be played on January 20, and the one-off Test is scheduled for January 30.
So far, Australia leads the charge, having won the Ashes three times and retained the trophy since 2015.
Knight candidly admitted that England does not have a mental edge over Australia and emphasized that her side will need to be at its best to win the Ashes for the third time.
“I don’t think we’ve got a mental edge. They’re an extremely good side, and we’re going to have to be at the top of our game to try and beat them. They’ll certainly go in as favourites, and our job will be, as it was in 2023, to go in and try to disrupt, and do things a little differently, to break that success and run they’ve had.”
It remains to be seen how this year’s Ashes will unfold. Both teams are strong, top-quality sides, but it will be fascinating to see if England can beat the world champions on their home soil and finally end their Ashes drought.
