{"id":325325,"date":"2025-12-03T16:46:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325325\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:46:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:46:56","slug":"josh-inglis-to-make-ashes-debut-will-replace-usman-khawaja-in-first-test-on-home-soil-at-the-gabba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325325\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Inglis to make Ashes debut, will replace Usman Khawaja in first Test on home soil at the Gabba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHe\u2019s not a bad bowler, is he? His record speaks for itself. He\u2019s a wonderful bowler. He\u2019s going to bowl good line and lengths, challenge the batting and his leadership as well. We\u2019ll wait and see. He\u2019s close, he\u2019s done everything really well in the last little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Selectors were vindicated omitting Lyon for Australia\u2019s last day\/night Test in Jamaica but it would be a gamble if they were to leave him out again here.<\/p>\n<p>Lyon, who relishes the extra bounce at the Gabba, has taken 52 wickets at a tick under 29 in Brisbane, and his pink-ball numbers are also compelling with 43 wickets at 25.62. Though day\/night Tests favour the quicks, Lyon plays an important role during the afternoon sessions before the pink ball misbehaves in twilight and after dark.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Josh Inglis (left) talks with Australian coach Andrew McDonald.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bd51e129308b68cf36f3e3c3530011c91cc1aef2.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Josh Inglis (left) talks with Australian coach Andrew McDonald.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>McDonald last week did not guarantee Lyon a start, and Smith was similarly non-committal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll look at the surface and sum things up from there,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHere\u2019s a place where Nathan has done really well in the past. He\u2019s a quality bowler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5m9qg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inglis<\/a> is set to bat in the middle order role in place of Travis Head, who will open the batting alongside Jake Weatherald, according to three sources with knowledge of team plans.<\/p>\n<p>A wicketkeeper who has performed well in all formats as a specialist batter, Inglis has played three Tests for Australia \u2013 two against Sri Lanka and one against the West Indies.<\/p>\n<p>He plundered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p5l8f7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">102 off 94 balls in his maiden Test innings in Galle<\/a> this year to become the first Australian to reach triple figures on debut since Adam Voges in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Loading<\/p>\n<p>Inglis comes into the Gabba Test in form, with scores of 40 and 125 not out for a Cricket Australia XI against the England Lions last month.<\/p>\n<p>However, due to international white-ball commitments, Inglis has only played one Sheffield Shield match for Western Australia this season, making scores of four and 28.<\/p>\n<p>He managed 17 runs across two innings during his most recent Test against the West Indies in Barbados. In first class cricket, Inglis averages 35.67.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[He\u2019s] been a really good player for a long period of time,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe\u2019s come up through the system and continues to get better and better. Every opportunity he\u2019s got at any level, be it T20, one-day or Test cricket, he\u2019s put his best foot forward and done a good job for the team. If he gets an opportunity he\u2019ll do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inglis\u2019 inclusion means Webster is set to be snubbed despite a promising start to his Test career and being a regular in the team since the Sydney Test against India earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Webster was in back-to-back conversations with McDonald and Bailey at the start of training before collecting his batting gear for a hit.<\/p>\n<p>Cricket Australia staff and media were evacuated from the Gabba, and fire trucks arrived at about 4pm local time on Wednesday, after a smoke detector went off outside a kitchen. The alarm was sounded as the Australians were leaving the venue, which reopened about 10 minutes later. England captain Ben Stokes later held his pre-game press conference before his team trained.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes said England\u2019s inclusion of spinning all-rounder Will Jacks (in place of injured speedster Mark Wood) ahead of lead spinner Shoaib Bashir had been done with the pink-ball conditions in Brisbane in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes replied to a question about recent photos of England players wearing scooters without helmets by saying: \u201cNext time we\u2019re on a scooter, we will wear helmets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p56jal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe\u2019s not a bad bowler, is he? His record speaks for itself. He\u2019s a wonderful bowler. He\u2019s going&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-325325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}