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The Ashes | 3rd Test Preview - It is do or die for Joe Root’s England

Kingshuk Kusari

England head into the third Test match of the Ashes Down Under 0-2 down, with Joe Root’s men in all sorts of trouble. The tension was palpable after the end of the last game in Adelaide after an unlikely Root outburst where he put the blame straight on the bowlers. And things did not end there. In a column with English news publication The Telegraph, star pacer and one of the most influential members of the English squad - James Anderson, hit back at the batting department for not scoring enough runs on board, calling the Adelaide pitch one of the flattest of all time.

The whole scenario is fitting of a facepalm emoji. As if England did not have enough problems already.

England make four changes

After the whole meltdown, England have made four changes in their playing XI for the Boxing Day Test match. The divisive position of Rory Burns has been handed to another divisive opener in the English circuit, Zak Crawley. Both batsmen, however talented, have come under fire for their silly modes of dismissals.

Coming into the MCG Test, Crawley has not had a prolific time in domestic cricket. After his debacle in the two-Test matches against New Zealand at home and then another failure against India, Crawley has scored three fifties in four first class matches.

Barring Crawley, England have removed Ollie Pope, the 23-year-old promising youngster, who has been dismissed against all lengths in the last two Test matches.

Pope has gotten out twice to Nathan Lyon - once trying to defend the ball and once punching the ball into the hands of the slip fielder. The other two dismissals of the right hander have come against pace - once while trying to hook a short ball, and the other one edging a fuller length ball to the keeper.

And who have they brought in as the replacement? None other than the white ball maestro Jonny Bairstow, another player who divides opinion in England over his place in the long format.

Bowling changes

The final two changes out of the four have been on expected cards. With the inclusion of Jonny Bairstow in the batting department, England have chosen to bench Chris Woakes who played 97 balls in the second innings, delaying England’s defeat for a considerable period of time. His place is taken by Jack Leach.

Stuart Broad also finds his way out of the playing XI and is replaced by right arm quick Mark Wood.

All in all, this England attack looks more rounded with Ollie Robinson and James Anderson giving them the new ball prowess. Mark Wood will be injecting much needed pace in the attack with Jack Leach playing the role of a primary spinner.

Australia bring in Scott Boland

For any English fan Australia’s pace bowling riches is scary. The primary bowling line up of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins routed them in the first match of the Ashes series. England would have hoped for some reprieve after both Hazlewood and Cummins were ruled out of the second Test, but it was not to be. The new look attack comprising Jhye Richardson and Micheal Neser demolished the English batting making sure that there was nothing loose offered to the tourists.

Pat Cummins returns for the MCG Test match in place of Neser and Australia have decided to give a surprise debut to Scott Boland, who replaces Jhye Richardson. Richardson has been benched over fitness concerns and with Hazlewood not making a return to the playing XI, Boland will be taking over the pace bowling duties.

Pitch Report & Weather conditions

Melbourne over the past couple of seasons has seen big change in the pitch conditions. In the India series last year, MCG had plenty of grass cover to aid the pace battery of both teams and spinners were helped as well once the freshness died out.

One can expect similar conditions and with no rain to affect the game, both Nathon Lyon and Jack Leach can come into play in the later stages of the game.

Match Details

Australia vs England

Match Number - Third

Date & Time - 26-30 December, 5:00 Am IST

Broadcast - Sony Sports Network

Venue - Melbourne Cricket Ground

England Probable XI

Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Jack Leach, James Anderson

Australia Probable XI

David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon

CE Fantasy XI

Alex Carey, David Warner (c), Steve Smith, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Cameron Green, James Anderson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins (vc)






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1st Test Preview: India aim to conquer another peak, South Africa eager to mark start of revival

After pummelling almost every side at home and similar conditions for a couple of years, Virat Kohli and his men embarked on their first “challenging” tour around the same time four years ago. They had shown remarkable bowling resources, incredible batting quality and promises unprecedented successes on the overseas tour which have been unceremonious on most occasions. The Indian juggernaut started in South Africa but Kohli and his men paid the price of not becoming clear-headed in their approach and indiscipline in batting. They were exposed as a side that still had too many chinks in their armour and the Proteas had a superman in the form of AB de Villiers which clearly stood form between the sides to exploit every bit of the gap in performance the men in blue promised to offer and they actually produced on the tour. Their batting was proved ineffective throughout the series and even a red hot Kohli could not provide enough cushioning. What was to be a promising and jubilant ride threatened to unravel in South Africa even before it could take off. However, then came the depth of the side and inspiring performances one after another and fast forward to 2021 when Kohli is back again in the rainbow nation for his second round of the bout, he has achieved many feats his predecessors could only have dreamt of. He has seen his side winning two back to back Test series in Australia, a dominating performance in an incomplete series in England. New Zealand was a blip where they were once again found out against the swing and seam of the Blackcaps but the promises that they were offering before the start of their overseas cycle in 2017-18 has been delivered on most fronts. Now, as Kohli has come back to the South African shores, he would like to have side play the brand of cricket he always envisioned them and himself of playing. 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Probable XI Dean Elgar (C), Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Keegan Petersen, Quinton de Kock (WK), Wiaan Mulder, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Duanne Olivier, Keshav Maharaj. India With the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin is all set to play his first overseas Test since the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in June. He was overlooked for the all-round skills of Jadeja for the four Tests against England and the three-game long series against the Proteas will give him the perfect opportunity to establish his all-round pedigree once again. The emergence of Siraj and his ability to extract seam movement off the surface makes him an undroppable pacer among the reliable group compared to Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. Siraj should form the trio along with Bumrah and Shami. However, the elephant in the room for Team India would be the choice of playing XI in terms of playing either an extra batsman at number six or a pace-bowling all-rounder in Shardul Thakur. He showed remarkable quality in England and deserves a place in the side but will Kohli risk a thin batting line up in a short series? Their new vice-captain KL Rahul gave a strong hint at continuing with a five-man bowling attack and in that case, they will have to go through what Rahul called “difficult discussion” over the selection of one among Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer. There is a wide range of arguments both in support and against the selection of each of them and it will rest on Kohli and Rahul Dravid shoulders to accept what school of ideas they want to stick to at the start of an important series. 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