Atherton questions Australia's pace attack

Michael Atherton, the former England captain, says Australia's pace attack is unlikely to be too different from the one that featured in last year's epic Ashes series, but he still lists them as favourites this summer.

"In terms of personnel, I can't see that Australia's bowling is going to improve from the last Ashes series," Atherton said on Sydney's Triple M radio. "They don't seem to have brought in anybody new and the guys are obviously a little bit older. [Mike] Hussey is obviously a big improvement in the batting as somebody you've brought in."

In the 2005 Ashes, the Australian pace attack included Glenn McGrath, who missed two Tests, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz. While McGrath and Lee were the prominent wicket-takers, the rest failed to make an impression, in particular Gillespie, who managed just three wickets in as many Tests.

Atherton conceded that Australia would start as favourites, having won 11 of their 12 Tests since October, while England's form hasn't been as convincing, succeeding in only four of their 12 matches since regaining the urn.

"But generally, although Australia have obviously played well since the Ashes and won a lot of games, it's hard to see that their level of performance is going to be so much better than last summer because the personnel doesn't seem to have changed very much", Atherton said. "On the other hand, England are not playing as well as they were [in 2005]. Australia have home advantage. You'd have to say they'd start favourites."

Atherton said England's bowling attack has lacked venom, with injuries to key bowlers such as Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff. While Harmison is back in the Test squad and performed strongly against Pakistan, Jones and Flintoff still have injury concerns.

"Since the Ashes it's been a little bit of the old England, a few good games and a few bad games," he said. "They're missing Flintoff and Jones. The one bright thing has been the emergence of (left-arm spinner) Monty Panesar. He is a genuine, attacking, wicket-taking bowler."