Ashes 2023 Preview: Early odds, dates, venues and squads for England vs. Australia

This year’s Ashes series is the most hotly anticipated series in recent memory, with both teams in great form and talking a big game ahead of the showdown.

Australia dominated the last series Down Under, winning 4-0 and embarrassing the English in the process. 

Things have changed since then, and since Ben Stokes was named as captain and Brendon McCullum as coach England have played an ultra-aggressive and entertaining brand of cricket that has led them to 10 wins in 12 games.

The newly-crowned world Test Champions Australia will be England’s stiffest competition in the ‘BazBall’ era, with an elite bowling attack and a batting line-up that includes two of the world’s premier players in Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. 

Below we run through all the early information of the series, from dates, venues, and squads to the early odds from trusted online betting sites.

What is The Ashes schedule?

The Ashes kicks off in Birmingham on Friday June 16th and runs all the way to July 31st.

London will be hosting two games with the Oval and Lords hosting a game each, while Leeds and Manchester will be hosting a game each too.

• First Test, Edgbaston, Birmingham June 16-20
• Second Test, Lord's, London June 28-July 2
• Third Test, Headingley, Leeds July 6-10
• Fourth Test, Old Trafford, Manchester July 19-23
• Fifth Test, The Oval, London, July 27-31

What are the Ashes Odds?

England started as slight favourites to win the series a few weeks before things started, but since the injury to Jack Leach, and Australia's dominant victory over India, things have shifted. Australia are 10/11 to win the series with most betting sites, while England are at 6/4. The bookies, just like the pundits and fans, know we're in for an extremely close series.

A series draw is the outside bet, currently sitting at the 6/1 mark. 

When do the games start?

Each game will start at 11am BST.

The morning session goes until 1pm, then there is 40 minutes for lunch.

The afternoon session then goes until 3:40pm, then a 20 minute tea break, and the final session runs until 6pm, with an additional half an hour available if the full allocation of 90 overs hasn’t been bowled. 

What TV channel is The Ashes on?

Sky Sports have the rights to all domestic cricket, and every ball of every day will be live on Sky Sports cricket and Sky Sports Main Event.

The BBC have the rights to show the highlights after each day’s play, as well as ball-by-ball radio coverage Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. 

What are the squads for each team?

England Squad: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson

Australia's Predicted Squad: Pat Cummins (captain), Steve Smith (vice-captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.

The big talking point from England’s squad is the omission of Ben Foakes, who has been a steady hand in the lower order for England over the past 12 months as well as one of the world’s best glovemen.

Many pundits had called for Zak Crawley to be dropped, with one of Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook or even skipper Ben Stokes to move up the order and open the batting, but Stokes and McCullum have stuck with their man. 

During the Ireland Test, Jack Leach apparently felt some back pain, which after a scan showed that he had suffered a stress fracture in his back and would miss the entire Ashes series. Moeen Ali, despite not playing red-ball cricket since 2021 has been named his replacement. 

Australia were absolutely dominant in their victory over India in the World Test Championship final. Travis Head and Steve Smith both got excellent hundreds and the bowling attack looked fearsome. Scott Boland looks like he could be extremely important for the Aussies in this series, bowling an incredibly consistent and trying line and length which is perfect for English conditions. Keep an eye out on him throughout the Ashes.

How have recent series gone?

• 2013/14 (in Australia) - Australia won 5-0 
• 2015 (in England) - England won 3-2 
• 2017/18  (in Australia) Australia won 4-0 
• 2019 (in England) - drawn 2-2 
• 2021/22  (in Australia) Australia won 4-0 

Who could win Player of the Series?

There is an incredible amount of talent on both sides, but unsurprisingly Steve Smith is favourite to win Player of the Series with odds of 6/1. He has an incredible record in England and is coming into the series in good form, having just strummed a brilliant hundred against India in the WTC final. Joe Root is second favourite at 13/2, while Marnus Labuschagne is third at 8/1. An outside bet could be Travis Head at 18/1, given how consistently excellent he has been for Australia the past two years, and given how good he looked in scoring 163 at nearly a run a ball against India.