WATCH: Bumble gives Ashes pitch report from Black Country Living Museum
It's an intense rivalry that has lasted for more than a century - back to the days of the Peaky Blinders.
And cricketing legends swapped their England caps for flat caps as they got into character at the Black Country Living Museum to mark the start of the Ashes.
The visit of former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain and player-turned-commentator David "Bumble" Lloyd was part of a Sky promo for the Ashes series between England and Australia, which started a short distance across the West Midlands at Edgbaston today.
And the trio, part of the Sky punditry team for the Ashes, seemed to enjoy becoming gangsters for the day as they got kitted out in full Peaky Blinders gear and posed for fellow pundit and former player Ian Ward.
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The hit BBC series, starring Cillian Murphy, is partly filmed at the Dudley-based museum.
Bumble even presented a mock pitch report from the museum, joking that the groundsmen had "overdone it slightly" as the ground was "full of ash".
The legendary commentator said "fertiliser" had been used to help the pitch as the camera panned to some horse manure.
Bumble also paid homage to classic comedy The Fast Show as he recreated the famous sketch featuring the character Jesse, originally played by Mark Williams, who went on to star in the Harry Potter films.
The good-natured piece was part of Sky's build up to what is considered by many to be the biggest contest in cricket.
The five-game Ashes series will last until September, with the first test continuing into the weekend.
Crowds flocked to Edgbaston today for the start of the series as England got off to an excellent start.
Australia have not won an Ashes series on English soil since 2001.
