Ashes Third Test, Headingley

Australia lead the series 1-0 after winning the first Test at Edgbaston and drawing at Lord's.

The Aussies will be without former captain and the best batsman in the world after Steve Smith was ruled out with concussion following a Jofra Archer bouncer that struck him on the neck in his first innings at Lord's.

Marnus Labuschagne is expected to fill Smith's spot like he did at Lord's when he entered the fray as Test cricket's first ever concussion substitute where he scored an admirable 59 runs, helping to steer Australia to a draw on the final day.

It's expected that Peter Siddle will drop out of the side to allow for the return of James Pattinson who was rested for the second Test. Mitchell Starc seems destined to remain on drinks duty.

England meanwhile are expected to name an unchanged 11 although they may tinker with the make up of the batting order. Joe Root has struggled at first drop, while Jason Roy has failed to make the switch from opening in the ODI team to becoming a Test opener. Root is expected to move down to four with Joe Denly jumping into the number three position.

Many are talking about the effect of Jofra Archer's entry into Test cricket. Interestingly, his debut performance lands him as just the 312th best bowler on debut with overall figures of 5/91. He need only look across at his opponents in Pat Cummins (7/117) and Josh Hazlewood (7/142) who had better debut figures.

The Headingley pitch is rumoured to be a slow deck that will crumble and break up towards the end of the match. An interesting decision by the ground staff there given Australia's Nathan Lyon has been collecting wickets for fun and spun the English into knots in the first Test.

As always the toss will be important and Tim Paine will be hoping his luck continues. This will likely be a bat first pitch because no one will be looking to bat last on a decaying deck.

Play starts at 8pm AEST tonight so get your picture-in-picture going or set up a second screen to make sure you don't miss the first ball while watching the Eels belt the Dogs.

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TolEllts replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"Joash should stop as if he is playing backyard footy. His no look passes had caused us some games. His trying to milk a penalty for a 'strip' is very amateurist. He's given his all but need to clean up these errors and actions. It was a game we…"
3 minutes ago
Mallee57 replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"Thought Edwards was good at dummy half"
21 minutes ago
Mallee57 replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"Agree, thought they played well considering the injuries and continual swapping and changing of players some out of position. They had the game won except for some really costly errors, poor passing and frantic play especially in the early 2nd half.…"
22 minutes ago
JC replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"At this point i think smith is the more reliable steady dummy half, tds has more skill and will eventually be the guy but he is a bit rocks and diamonds at the moment and could do with a spell in reserve grade to work on his concentration and…"
29 minutes ago
Longfin Eel replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"I hear what you are saying, and you are right, but that sounds like what we said in the early 90s when we never expected to come close to winning games. As a club we do need to be so much better than what has been dished up this season. There has…"
1 hour ago
LB replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"Both can't have a stint. I don't think either need a long term stint. The more they play the better they'll be. I wouldn't say Smith is having 2nd year syndrome as much as that sternum injury would have limited him a lot."
1 hour ago
Parrafan101 replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"To be honest, Smith and Dasilva need a stint. Especially Dasilva. Has all the talent in the world but needs to pick his timing comes with age and just crafting at it. Smith needs a stint , he just havinf a second year syndrome."
1 hour ago
LB replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"Listening to Ryles' presser, he talked about the Hooking position. He mentioned Edwards was brought to the club as he can play dummy half as well as in the middle. But he also said Edwards allows Hookers to develop and play more mins in cup. So does…"
1 hour ago
Joel K replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"I'm proud of the effort, not proud of the basics that we get wrong every week
and I hate how we push passes on 1st and 2nd tackle, that Williams attempted offload when we where in the red zone on 2nd tackle killed me"
1 hour ago
Darren Munro replied to Blue Eel's discussion Should we be concerned !
"100% correct. The roster isn't good enough and they know it. Furthermore there's not a damn thing they can do about it. They can not close the deal. They need a deal marker. One would think ryles would have contacts in union to find some outside…"
1 hour ago
Mr 'BringBackFitzy' Analyst replied to Parra-all-the-way's discussion One proud fan
"All we ask is for them to compete, but there comes a time where competing just doesn't cut it."
1 hour ago
EA replied to Roy tannous's discussion What could of been💔
"Should we still get Burton lol "
1 hour ago
Cʜɪᴇғy Mclovin replied to Roy tannous's discussion What could of been💔
"Looking at the replay, I agree with other,  there was no need for Russell to be so flat. He could have been 3m behind and still scored.   Joash has thrown a few forward in 26 also"
1 hour ago
TolEllts replied to Roy tannous's discussion What could of been💔
"Happy with the effort and fight put in by the team. We have mostly 2nd graders but they tried their best throughout the game. If not for the basic errors just like Joash forward pass, we could have pull out an upset win. Kudos to the plYers and…"
2 hours ago
Yehez replied to Roy tannous's discussion What could of been💔
"I thought apart from one ball handling error, Kitione was great. 
Tuivati and Iongi underdone but they'll be great. "
2 hours ago
Coryn Hughes replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R13: The D.B. Cup (L28-22 A Fight)
"Truth but we had a lot of ins this week also Tuivaiti Iongi Kautoga it was a game if we were good enough it was there for the taking regardless.
Both teams made a mockery of the beginning of the second half.
If we'd have just completed sets just did…"
2 hours ago
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