{"id":334021,"date":"2025-12-08T02:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334021\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T02:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:39:10","slug":"englands-lack-of-ashes-depth-highlighted-as-australia-a-thumps-lions-at-allan-border-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334021\/","title":{"rendered":"England’s lack of Ashes depth highlighted as Australia A thumps Lions at Allan Border Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

England’s alarming lack of Ashes depth has been further emphasised, after their Lions side was flogged by an innings and 131 runs by Australia A in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Fresh off the tourists’ heavy loss at the Gabba on Sunday, leaving them 2-0 down in the Ashes<\/a>, the Lions were humiliated 10 minutes down the road at Allan Border Field today.<\/p>\n

After being bowled out for 166 on Friday, England’s batting managed slightly better in their second innings before being all out for 295.<\/p>\n

Youngster Asa Tribe, who has played five ODIs for England, finished unbeaten on 129, but Fergus O’Neill’s 4-53 for Australia A ensured there was no chance of a final-day draw.<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-2250620885\"<\/p>\n

Asa Tribe played almost a lone hand with his century for the England Lions. (Getty Images: Albert Perez)<\/p>\n

Those innings were sandwiched by Australia A’s 8-588 declared, with Nathan McSweeney using the match to push his Test claims with an unbeaten 226.<\/p>\n

The defeat follows a loss to a Cricket Australia XI last month, but most players featured in a first-innings win over a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.<\/p>\n

England’s senior side desperately needs change ahead of next week’s third Ashes Test in Adelaide, but realistically their options are limited.<\/p>\n

Ollie Pope is under mounting pressure to keep his spot at number three, after failing to reach 50 in any of his first four innings of the series.<\/p>\n

But the man most likely to replace him, Jacob Bethell, is still yet to hit his maiden first-class hundred in a career spanning 25 matches.<\/p>\n

Can’t get enough cricket from Grandstand?<\/a><\/p>\n

Tune in for the latest cricket news, interviews and analysis from the ABC team in the Grandstand Cricket Podcast.<\/p>\n

Bethell showed some signs of promise with a 71 against Australia A on Sunday, but his returns for the tour are now 3, 70, 44, 16, 19 and 71.<\/p>\n

Tribe’s century in the third innings in Brisbane has been the only hundred of the tour from an England Lions player, with no-one sticking their hand up for selection.<\/p>\n

The bigger concern for England could be spinner Shoaib Bashir, after years of preparing him for this Ashes summer.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old went for 0-115 from 25 overs against Australia A, with McSweeney pulling his first two balls for four on day one, and the match barely getting any better from there.<\/p>\n

Will Jacks was picked ahead of Bashir for the Gabba Test and took the wicket of Brendan Doggett, while offering some value with the bat.<\/p>\n

England’s back-up quicks Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts did not play in this Lions fixture, with Nathan Gilchrist taking 4-128 and Josh Hull 3-103.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England’s alarming lack of Ashes depth has been further emphasised, after their Lions side was flogged by an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[89805,186528,13285,64,63,124907,740,150511,125000,18779,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-334021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-allan-border-field","9":"tag-asa-tribe","10":"tag-ashes","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-a","14":"tag-cricket","15":"tag-england-lions","16":"tag-fergus-oneill","17":"tag-nathan-mcsweeney","18":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334021","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=334021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}