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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Poppa replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"Hilly, It easily said but I am not sure if you have the answers at a level past the original question.....we need!
Yes we can pay money/overs, no need for "stupid" to enter the equation at any point.....remember do to we want them along the lines of…"
2 minutes ago
Poppa replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"yeh! we are not far off when you tie it altogether!
As i said you are a smart man AE."
5 minutes ago
Parra fan on The Hill replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"This.
A quality player makes surrounding players better.
 "
15 minutes ago
sloth replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"Well written Poppa. What the club is trying to do makes a lot of logical sense in the long term, and overpaying for players is a great way to sink a club.
I know, I know, things are different with Ryles now so we should give them time. And our…"
20 minutes ago
macybrown replied to CarloEEL2's discussion Trust Riccio to stand up for Klein
"Think we sunk Ricky's hopes for '26 hehe. 
yeah my juju not much better. I'll never try to openly predict a score line ever again. I ought to have learned that years back.
cant believe nrl acting all as we were on this myself. Yeah if he has…"
32 minutes ago
Parra fan on The Hill replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"If we want a finals team we desparately need class players at centre, wing, 5/8 and a prop.
If you PAY them, they will come. We can afford stupid money for 2 of the above since most kids we have are on peanuts."
32 minutes ago
CarloEEL2 replied to CarloEEL2's discussion Trust Riccio to stand up for Klein
"Great Socceroos win too !!!!"
35 minutes ago
CarloEEL2 replied to CarloEEL2's discussion Trust Riccio to stand up for Klein
"Get mace 
yeh good observation about that duo 
last night I took my partner to dinner for his bday and returned home to us winning 
as soon as I started watching Canberra came back !!!!! So I took one for the team and turned it off til we won !!!
my…"
36 minutes ago
macybrown replied to CarloEEL2's discussion Trust Riccio to stand up for Klein
"Hey Carlo, just watched Aussies win in fifa World Cup 💚💛and ran thru my mind what if this Klein episode happened in world soccer? As if the crowds would take that shit? Highly doubt it.
hard to believe the nrl didn't remove him immediately...socked…"
43 minutes ago
Angry Eel replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"Just to clarify my points
1. I'm not knocking money ball. It's an important part of building a squad but we can't rely on that alone
4. Not saying he can't play I'm merely trying to explain why I'd rather Herbie. We could do without signing a player…"
45 minutes ago
Poppa replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"AE, 
I. Money Ball was a different time and profile, we as a club were not going that well financially at the time it was adopted.
2. Austerity in keeping the status quo when spending money has never hurt anyone.
3. The arguments I presented were…"
1 hour ago
JC replied to Kurupt - Your Mums Favourite Thug's discussion DISGRACEFUL REFEREEING AGAIN!!!
"He list the ball in the tackle, it wasn't a  play the ball error."
1 hour ago
Parra fan on The Hill replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Should we keep Kelma?
"YES! He's impoved leaps and bounds since he arrived from Manly.
Defo worth having at least on bench. He's our fastest forward and that counts a lot these days."
1 hour ago
Poppa replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner: Judgements are being made but not understood or maybe even appreciated!
"Seems like that is a good start Strang-ly Eel ....pun intended."
1 hour ago
Colin Good replied to Kurupt - Your Mums Favourite Thug's discussion DISGRACEFUL REFEREEING AGAIN!!!
"Tout hes and referees seem to be all in on it ,the anti Parramatta sickness "
2 hours ago
Mallee57 replied to CarloEEL2's discussion Trust Riccio to stand up for Klein
"Probably gets 'Mates Rates' "
2 hours ago
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