{"id":284098,"date":"2025-11-26T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284098\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:30:07","slug":"england-warned-wickets-fall-in-clumps-with-pink-ball-under-lights-at-the-gabba-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284098\/","title":{"rendered":"England warned \u2018wickets fall in clumps\u2019 with pink ball under lights at the Gabba | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

As they lick their wounds after defeat in the first Test<\/a>, during which they lost five wickets for 12 runs in their first innings and four for 11 in their second, England have been warned to prepare for conditions where \u201cwickets fall in clumps\u201d when the Ashes resume next week in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

David Sandurski, curator at the Gabba, is preparing for a second day\u2011night game in quick succession after the Sheffield Shield match between Queensland and Victoria, which ended on Monday with the home side winning by seven wickets inside three days.<\/p>\n

Xavier Bartlett took five wickets in that game, while scoring 72 runs in the first innings. \u201cJust on twilight the pink ball talks a little bit more and the game goes through massive ebbs and flows,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cYou see wickets falling in clumps. You\u2019ve got to stay in it and make the most of that middle session. If the Test wicket is like the one we just played on, it will be a really good cricket wicket. We got a result in three days but when you bat well you get rewarded and if you bowl well it\u2019s the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandurski welcomed the early finish to the Sheffield Shield game, which he said would \u201cmake life just that little bit more comfortable\u201d. He said: \u201cAll indications are there is a bit of heat around. The wicket will dry out a lot quicker so you\u2019ve got to make sure you keep enough moisture in it to last five days. The aim is to provide a wicket where all players get a chance to perform their skills so hopefully all facets of the game come into the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

England have limited experience in pink-ball Tests: they have played seven in their history and two in the past five years, the most recent in New Zealand in February 2023 \u2013 one of only two they have won. Australia have played 14, including six in the past five years, with 13 wins and one defeat.<\/p>\n

The tourists have nevertheless declined to send any of the players involved in the first Test to take part in the Lions\u2019 two-day pink-ball game against a Prime Minister\u2019s XI in Canberra, which starts on Saturday. While that decision has been widely criticised, the former Australia Test bowler Peter Siddle, who is poised to play against the Lions, said they would probably have gained little from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first Test didn\u2019t go to plan for them but it\u2019s such different conditions, Manuka Oval compared to the Gabba, two totally different surfaces,\u201d he told Fox Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not going to be a lot they can get out of it, other than maybe seeing a pink ball under lights, that\u2019s probably the only benefit they\u2019re going to get. It\u2019s a hard one, I know what it\u2019s like being on tour for a long time. It\u2019s only the first Test just gone, but they just came from New Zealand most of that squad so they\u2019ve played a lot of cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The former Australia batter Stuart Law, an expert on conditions at the Gabba having captained Queensland for many years, told the BBC: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to bat in Canberra and then go to Brisbane. You\u2019ve got a ball bouncing at knee-high and then you\u2019ve got a ball bouncing at chest-high. It doesn\u2019t really do you too much good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As they lick their wounds after defeat in the first Test, during which they lost five wickets for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-284098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}