{"id":296485,"date":"2025-12-03T09:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296485\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:35:08","slug":"the-ashes-pat-cummins-could-play-in-second-test-as-australia-delay-naming-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/296485\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ashes: Pat Cummins could play in second Test as Australia delay naming team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There will be at least one change to the Australia team from first Test, after opener Usman Khawaja failed to recover from back spasms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Leeds-born batter Josh Inglis is the most likely to come into the side, having trained as part of the Australia slip cordon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Travis Head, who made a match-winning century in Perth after being promoted to open in place of Khawaja, will remain at the top of the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Inglis moved to Australia when he was 14 and made a century on Test debut against Sri Lanka this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 30-year-old, who has three Test caps, made a hundred for a Cricket Australia XI against England Lions over the weekend of the first Test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s a pretty attacking batsman,&#8221; said Smith. &#8220;He did really well on his debut in Sri Lanka. He&#8217;s been in really good form and he plays fast bowling nicely. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll do really well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The return of Cummins &#8211; one of the best fast bowlers in the world &#8211; would be a huge boost to an Australia team 1-0 up and with the chance to move a step closer to retaining the Ashes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Only Mitchell Starc has taken more wickets in floodlit Tests than Cummins. Cummins has a better average, strike-rate and economy rate when bowling with a pink ball compared to the red.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In batting at number eight, Cummins will also boost an Australia batting order that included a long tail in Perth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">England, who have not won a Test in Australia in almost 15 years nor a match in Brisbane since 1986, confirmed their team on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Spin-bowling all-rounder Will Jacks has been included for his first Test in three years, replacing injured pace bowler Mark Wood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With England identifying the need for a spin option, Jacks was chosen ahead of first-choice spinner Shoaib Bashir because of the runs he could provide at number eight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We tried to look at how we thought spin was going to be used and there was a bit of a tactical element to it,&#8221; said Stokes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Jacksy&#8217;s ability with the bat &#8211; to have that down the order for us is useful as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If it ever comes down to picking our best spinner, selection would go the other way.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be at least one change to the Australia team from first Test, after opener Usman Khawaja&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-296485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296485","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=296485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}