{"id":196730,"date":"2025-12-17T15:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196730\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:57:07","slug":"the-ashes-2025-26-england-face-defining-day-at-last-chance-saloon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/196730\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ashes 2025-26: England face defining day at last-chance saloon"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, batting long was England’s biggest problem in the first two Tests of this series.<\/p>\n

They managed only 67.3 overs across both innings of the first Test combined and did not survive long enough for Australia to require a second new ball in either innings of the second. <\/p>\n

Harry Brook has admitted playing “shocking” shots. Now is the chance to show he really has learned. <\/p>\n

Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope are on their last drink in last chance saloon.<\/p>\n

England must first repeat what they achieved for the first time this series in the second innings in Brisbane, surviving the opening over from left-armer Starc, before an entirely different prospect follows. <\/p>\n

Having been a second-string in the first two Tests, Australia’s bowling attack is back to near full strength with captain Pat Cummins fit again and spinner Nathan Lyon recalled. <\/p>\n

No bowler has taken more than Lyon’s 63 wickets at the Adelaide Oval – a ground he knows from his 15 Tests but also his time working on the groundstaff<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lyon’s old boss is still the curator in Adelaide. Even more reason to score your runs before the ball turns big. <\/p>\n

“England are going to have to go big because the main difference is Nathan Lyon,” said former Australia opener Justin Langer on TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

“Even [England spinner] Will Jacks got a few to spin but it’s going to be 40 degrees tomorrow and will start spinning so England have to capitalise on this very flat wicket.<\/p>\n

“England have to be thinking they’ll only bat once, it’s that flat a wicket. I didn’t see a ball swing or seam all day. This is a batting paradise.”<\/p>\n

Is that hope? Ask again on Thursday morning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, batting long was England’s biggest problem in the first two Tests of this series. They managed only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-196730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}