The Ashes - 2013 - The "Warm Up" Series

While England won the 2013 Ashes convincingly 3-0, Australia consoled itself with the half truth that the 2013 edition of cricket's "greatest rivalry" was a mere warm up for the home 2013/14 Ashes which were to start a few months later (Australia won that series 5-0).

But back to 2013. Ian Bell and Ryan Harris were the stand out players in a series probably more famous for Dave Warner hitting out in quite the wrong way and for the English post-Oval Test celebration that elicited a fine headline in The Sun: "Ashes to Splashes".

The ever sober Wisden Almanack summarised the series thus: "Ashes series are notorious for defying forecasts. But the 2013 edition made the pundits look pretty good: the eventual margin of 3-0 to England - the first time Australia had failed to win a Test in an Ashes series since 1977 - would probably have been the median prophecy. Even Australians seemed unsurprised, though they were hopeful of better during the imminent sequel Down Under."

Players in this set:

Australia: AC Agar, BJ Haddin, CJL Rogers, DA Warner, EJM Cowan, JL Pattinson, JM Bird, JP Faulkner, MA Starc, MJ Clarke, NM Lyon, PJ Hughes, PM Siddle, RJ Harris, SPD Smith, SR Watson, UT Khawaja

England: AN Cook, CR Woakes, GP Swann, IJL Trott, IR Bell, JE Root, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, KP Pietersen, MJ Prior, SC Kerrigan, SCJ Broad, ST Finn, TT Bresnan

This set of Advanced Player Cards is available as a downloadable PDF immediately after purchase.

For more information on the 2013 Series, visit Wisden.

Image Source: Daily Mail.