The Ashes Tour of Australia 2025/26

I did see a video of Talk sport cricket and I have seen both Mark Butcher and Darren Gough's commenting on the situation and I have to say when you give up on line and length too quickly you lose a very vital part of your bowling arsenal, and at the same time you also have to remember how much quicker the ball moves in the air Down Under and finding that extra bit of pace is also crucial. I very much now hope the bowlers realise they shouldn't dismiss line and length too quickly, just bloody persevere with it and eventually you might start seeing good results, but also we need to bowl and keep their batsman on their toes.

There is one other podcast on YT I like that is the one Old Guys New Balls which features Bill Beaumont & Ian Botham and seen episodes featuring Brett Lee, Merv Hughes and Allan Border.

I was stunned to find out that Allan has Parkinson's - he was a wonderful batsman to watch and often very hard to dislodge and I wish Allan well in his fight with Parkinson's. Brett was very entertaining to listen very softly spoken too and the story of how he met Sir Mick Jagger is an intriguing listen. I have always regarded him, McGrath & Warne probably being as one of Australia's best bowling attacks of all time.

I think pitch dependent, winning the toss in Adelaide and making the right call will be pivotal in this series.

I see that Steve Smith has been ruled out of the 3rd test.

"He was unwell on Monday and missed training. He trained on Tuesday but was clearly not at 100 per cent. He has now left the ground and headed to the hotel.

It appears as though Usman Khawaja will be recalled in extraordinary circumstances. The shape of Australia's batting line-up will be known after the toss"

This feels like a significant moment, the batting line up is massively depleted without Smith. England have to get the new ball right, take a few early poles & attack Khawaja who must be nervous after losing his place many thought his Test career was over. It could work either way maybe nothing to lose, but he can't bat like Smith.
I'm a bit concerned that Carse isn't a regular new ball opening bowler, & I'm not sure which of our bowlers will keep the runs down.

I'm wondering if Stokes will put himself on first (if England bowl first), and get the bowlers to put as much pressure on Khawaja early on. Getting the openers out early, is also key.

Let's hope they bowl a decent line and length will help keep runs down too, and turn the omission of Smith into a advantage that we can exploit.

going by economy bowling rates,
Archer for 8 overs is 3/15 1.87 and Jacks for 2.0 - 0/17 is 8.50 and Tongue 7 overs 0/19 is 2.78

The decision to replace Smith with Khawaja seems to be a fully justified move for the Aussies with him being 61 not out and any good momentum for England may have disappeared and the target now has to be keeping the score below 350 I would say for England to really stay in the game.

Khwaja finally out for 82 by Jacks 197 - 5

Had he got a century I think we would have problems, but I can only guess at the damage Starc's going to do when we bat and certainly now we have to work towards getting them out for below 300- 350 for any real chance. When it is our turn they are really going to have to step up and at least not give wickets away so cheaply, and at least bat all the way down the order.