England v Ireland & Australia Test Cricket 2019

England need Ali to bowl better. The contrast with Australian spinner Lyon in this match has not been flattering. Root bowled 3 overs himself today and was about to turn to Denly when bad light ended play (at 124/3).

Get the feeling that this will end one of two scenarios - an Australian win or a draw at present a draw looks more likely

Australia completely dominate the 4th day and are able to declare on 487/7, setting England 398 to win in a day and 7 overs. It's been quite a turnaround from the 1st day of the match when Australia were struggling on 122/8.

i guess England now need to pray for a rain affected day

It's not looking good for England, 85/4 at lunch.

On a statistical note, there have been 10 successful reviews in this match, against the test average of about 2.6 per match.

Australia won by 251 runs. A beating that England will have to get over very quickly. With Mark Wood out and now James Anderson out for two Tests (and possibly out for rest of series), What are England's bowling options for the second Test?

Archer in for Anderson in the next test is an obvious choice. The selectors, however, have some difficult decisions to make. Ali looks like a player lacking confidence; his bowling in the first test was very poor, lacking any consistency, and batting wise he's turned into fodder for Lyon. The team also has too many one day batters, who struggle in test match conditions. Neither Butler nor Bairstow batted well and, as an opener, Roy needs to curb his tendency to play like a pinch hitter. In the second innings he looked all right until he danced down the wicket and Lyon rattled his stumps.

I'm not sure who could come in, but if we keep the same squad more thought and care is needed when batting.

I don think Ali hasn't shown the consistency and confidence that he showed on his test debut and England haven't really unearthed another spinner the Swann/Panesar mould for quite a while. Roy needs to switch his thinking from 1 Day to Test mode. Archer would be an obvious choice for me to but is he ready? It's also going to be a big ask to ask Broad to slot into the Anderson role too.I'm wondering if this will be the Ashes where we may hsve to blood one or two new players in various roles/positions and batting order ready for the winter tour.

After a washout yesterday the 2nd Test is now a 4 day match. England make 2 changes, bringing Jack Leach in for Moeen Ali and Jofra Archer in for Jimmy Anderson.

Australia have won the toss and have put England in - this is the first time Australia have won the toss in a Test match and opted to bowl since February 2016.

England's 258 all out doesn't look that impressive a total, but batting didn't look easy for Australia either as they made 30/1 in the last hour of the day.