Lyon hoping for big Test in Adelaide as Cummins returns and England must win
Australia v England | 3rd Ashes Test | Wednesday 17th to Sunday 21st December | Adelaide Oval | 01:30am
The Adelaide Test is the third game of a five-match series. Australia currently lead 2-0 which means if England fail to win, they can no longer win the series.
A win for Australia will see them retain the Ashes with two games still to play.
Neither of the opening games of the series went beyond three days, with the first Test ending inside two.
England have made no changes to their batting lineup for the third Test. The only change to their team is Josh Tongue who replaces fellow pace bowler Gus Atkinson.
England have once again omitted a front-line spinner, with batting allrounder Will Jacks once again getting the nod ahead of Shoaib Bashir. This is a somewhat surprising decision as Adelaide is traditionally a spin-friendly track.
Underlining the spin-friendly nature of the Adelaide wicket, no bowler has taken more wickets at the ground than Australian spinner Nathan Lyon. Lyon has bagged 63 Test wickets in Adelaide, even more than legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne who has 56 scalps.
With 562 Test wickets to his credit Nathan Lyon is seventh on the list of all-time Test wicket takers. He needs just two wickets in Adelaide to leapfrog Glenn McGrath in sixth.
Australia’s regular Test skipper Pat Cummins has been declared fit and is set to make his first appearance of the series in Adelaide.
Despite being fit again Usman Khawaja may be left out as his absence has seen Travis Head excel at the top of the order.
Australia are the top ranked Test side in the world while England are ranked third.
The match features three of the world’s top four batsmen with England’s Joe Root (who scored his first ever Test century in Australia in Brisbane) at one and Steve Smith at three. England’s Harry Brook is at four.
Australia’s Mitchell Starc has taken 18 wickets in the opening two game of the series. At Brisbane he passed Wasim Akram to become the leading left-arm quick wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket.
Despite Australia’s excellent form, England have won two of the last five Tests between the sides, the same number as Australia have won. There has been one draw.
Venue: Adelaide Oval
England have won nine of the 33 Tests they have played at the Adelaide Oval.
England’s last win at Adelaide came in 2010 when a Kevin Pietersen inspired side (he scored 227 runs) beat Australia by an innings and 71 runs.
Australia have won 56 of the 83 Tests they have played in Adelaide.
Adelaide Oval has played host to 83 Tests. Of those the side batting first has won 40 and the batting second 24. There have been 19 draws.
Batting first is the favoured option on winning the toss – this has been the choice of the winning team in 73 of the 83 games played at the venue.
The Adelaide is an actual oval, which means that the straight boundaries are much longer than the square ones.
The average first innings score at the venue is 377.
The highest score made at the ground was Australia’s Donald Bradman inspired 674 all out from 151.3 overs made against India in 1948.
The lowest score made at the ground was the West Indies disappointing fourth innings effort of 77 all out in 2022.
The highest score successfully chased at the ground was Australia’s 315 for 6 from 134 overs made against England way back in 1901.
Weather:
It looks to be good weather for the duration of the Test with Adelaide expected to experience a significant warm-up with mostly sunny skies and high daytime temperatures. Wednesday and Thursday will be particularly hot, with maximum temperatures soaring to approximately 32 and 36 degrees respectively, under clear conditions. The heat will ease slightly towards the weekend. Friday will see a high of 30, followed by cooler maximums of around 24 on Saturday and 23 on Sunday. There is a low chance of rain throughout the period, with clear weather dominating until Saturday, which may see some cloud cover and a minor chance of light rain.
Form (most recent game first):
Australia: W, W, W, W, W.
England: L, L, L, D, W.
Key player:
Australia, Mitchell Starc: Starc has been an absolute menace all series; with 18 wickets from two games, he has ripped through the England batting time and again. With Pat Cummins back in the attack alongside him and Scott Boland in good form, the Australian attack is even better for Adelaide than it was in Brisbane. Starc is currently ranked third on the ICC’s Test bowling rankings. His last ten games have seen him take 48 wickets at an economy rate of 3.42 and a strike rate of 31,5.
England, Harry Brook: Joe Root got the monkey off his back in Brisbane when he finally bagged a three figure Test score in Australia. But England now need some of their other stars to step up and contribute and Brook (ranked four in the world) has pledged to make a difference in Adelaide. With knocks of 52, 0, 31 and 15 in the series thus far, he has been making starts but as yet, he has failed to push on and really dominate. Speaking to the media on Monday Brook spoke reflectively of his series to date, saying: “It hasn’t been an ideal series. Sometimes, I’ve got to rein it in a little bit: learn when to absorb the pressure a little bit more and realise when the opportunity arises to put the pressure back on them. I feel like I haven’t done that as well as I usually do. I just haven’t identified those situations well enough.”
Verdict: Australia
England are desperate to win, but it is hard to see how that will happen. Quite simply Australia are the better team. They have their tails up, they are at home and, unless England have done some serious revisiting of their tactics, Australia knows exactly how they are likely to play. Expect Australia to claim the series in Adelaide.
