2025-2026 Summer of Cricket

After years of planning by England, Wood lasts one test against Australia.

If Archer succumbs to injury after Brisbane, the fear factor of their attack will be gone. With the continuation of the Bazball without brains mentality by the batsmen, it’s looking grim for England.
 
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I just read a report in the SMH that Khawaja passed a fitness test and did some batting in the nets.

So we’ll have to wait as see if he named to play on Thursday.
 
This is unpopular but i think in particular for the pink ball you want usman up the top of the order, with clear instructions to get through 20 overs regardless of runrate etc. the pink ball will go soft and the middle order should be able to bat long periods.
Not taking anything away from heads knock but that wicket flattened right out and he was facing an attack that was really effected by englands lack of time at the crease which was evident in jofras drop in speed innings on innings.
a swinging pink ball against a fresh bowling attack at a green gabba isnt the time or place for head to be aggressive and his not the sort of player you want seeing off the new ball.

If england bats first they will likely play super aggressive and hope to declare on day one at twilight and then it literally becomes a battle of survival for us for 20-30 overs at the end of day 1, which again i dont think is an ideal scenario for travis head.
 
As I have said before, I would have preferred to see Renshaw being selected to open with Weatherald. Renshaw is in excellent form and the Gabba is his home ground. We definitely want 2 experienced opening batsmen starting against the pink ball.

I strongly agree that Head should not be a regular opener for Australia, he is ideal for small chases but that is all.
 
Yeah 3 tons including a pink ball 100 in 4 matches should be pretty hard to ignore, but as we all know its harder to get out of the test side than it is to get in it. If this series goes to plan usman will get his swan song in sydney and renshaw will get first crack at his position when we play afghanistan ( not sure CAs current stance but they are in the schedule) in August and then hopefully be on the tour to south Africa a month later.
I dont think throwing weatherald on the scrap heap is the right call just yet either, the bloke has been the best shield opener for a few years now and in his favour is the fact he does it every second game at bellruive which is a seamers paradise.

In Usmans defense of his batting efforts in the first match i reckon he copped the ball that misbehaved the most all game, for a pitch that was very consistant in bounce that one he copped rocketed up towards him.
if he can score 20 or 30 in as many overs his done all we need from him in this game. his a great leaver and can soak up early pressure better than most, its often ugly but he is quite happy to play down the line and not push at the ball which is exactly what we need when its hooping and seaming around.
 
Lefty said:
Khawaja has failed to recover from his back injury and has been ruled out of the second test. No replacement will be added to the squad.

So we can Head and Weatherald to open together again.

www.abc.net.au

Breaking: Khawaja ruled out of second Ashes Test with back injury

Australia will be without veteran opener Usman Khawaja for the second Ashes Test after the 38-year old was ruled out due to an ongoing back problem.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
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So Inglis or Webster in do you think?
 
You could nearly go both Webster and Inglis and leave Lyon out. Have Webster bowl some offies as a change up. Starv will rip through with the pink ball anyway. May was well have a long batting line up
 
Macca89 said:
You could nearly go both Webster and Inglis and leave Lyon out. Have Webster bowl some offies as a change up. Starv will rip through with the pink ball anyway. May was well have a long batting line up
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Interestingly enough Lyon is good at Gabba and pink ball though
 
Macca89 said:
You could nearly go both Webster and Inglis and leave Lyon out. Have Webster bowl some offies as a change up. Starv will rip through with the pink ball anyway. May was well have a long batting line up
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if england bat long enough to soften the pink ball your going to want lyon bowling a fair bit, Ive pretty much got it wrong all summer 😅 but i think lyon is a lock.
You could make an argument for picking webster to pick up a reduced workload for cummins if cummins is going to make a sneaky return.

Head
JW
Marnus
Smith
Green
Webster
Carey
Cummins
Starc
Lyon
Boland

Or

Head
JW
Marnus
Smith
Green
Inglis
Carey
Starc
Lyon
Boland
Doggett.
 
I can’t see anything other than an Australian win. England haven’t won at the Gabba in 39 years and we don’t lose pink ball test matches except for ironically one at the Gabba vs the Windies
 
Macca89 said:
I can’t see anything other than an Australian win. England haven’t won at the Gabba in 39 years and we don’t lose pink ball test matches except for ironically one at the Gabba vs the Windies
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Im certainly not as confident as you. the pink ball is a batters ball after 20 overs. I recall an average pakistan team putting 400 on us at adelaide when the ball died, the windies also batted near 2 full sessions only losing 2 wickets. This england team with a dead ball could quite easily go very big with it! Coin toss and getting your declarations right will be crucial also. It wont suprise me if whoever wins the toss bats and plans to declare just into the 3rd session day 1.
Ontop of that our batting order is still as fragile as its ever been, head at the top is very likely to knick off early also, which as to the point i was making earlier will be a waste of his positive batting we could be seeing later on against a dead ball.

Its going to be exciting cricket but it will be another game that can go either way in my eyes. Maybe this is the game that brings lyon into the series, once that ball stops swinging i think we are going to need alot of work out of him, it may be the difference in the end.
 
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