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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Cʜɪᴇғy Mclovin 🐐 replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Hopgood 2 week ban,
"The joke yesterday was our ball handling not the ref"
39 seconds ago
Cʜɪᴇғy Mclovin 🐐 replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Hopgood 2 week ban,
"How about Brown ea??"
1 minute ago
Cʜɪᴇғy Mclovin 🐐 replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Hopgood 2 week ban,
"Bring in Moretti "
1 minute ago
Make Parra Great Again replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Hopgood 2 week ban,
"1 week he copped
 
whole team should be suspended for that performance"
11 minutes ago
Poppa replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Yes, you will note that Moses rarely gets a captain's challenge wrong, he just asumed that he would win it as a fait acompli, he could not believe it when the Bunker came through with what seemed an almost pre rehearsed denial!"
12 minutes ago
Nightmare Off-Season replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Man, that is very ugly reading HOE.
Says it all. 
 "
13 minutes ago
Mallee57 replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Well said and absolutely accurate. If the Lomax court case went on longer it might have exposed some of the NRL 'funny business' "
23 minutes ago
Mallee57 replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Exactly. Shame the Lomax court case didn't last longer to bring out some of the NRL stuff"
27 minutes ago
Poppa replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Forwards set the platform, there is still notwithstanding a responsibity for the backs to keep a defensive formation.
I believe the forwards lost formation trying to cover for the repeated one on one misses from Pezet and Kelly. It will be…"
28 minutes ago
Mallee57 replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"Definitely without doubt the refereeing was woeful and I absolutely agree with what you've said in regards to the refereeing decisions. That's one of the worst Eels games I've seen in awhile. Considering how well they played the end of last year and…"
30 minutes ago
Anguillidae replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"I turned it off after the 'Captains Challenge' debacle. It was pretty clear what was happening. We can only imagine what was going through the players minds at that time. 6 again Storm. And another 6 again to the Storm. Fuck off."
38 minutes ago
Desieels replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"I stopped watching after 18-4. I saw the defence was horrendous. We haven't learnt much from the last season. Yes, it is just the first game. In the blink of an eye, we will be in August. A slow start is an inherent issue, and it looks like we…"
38 minutes ago
Hell On Eels replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"From around the 45th minute to the 72nd minute Storm completed 17 sets to our 3 sets. 
The score went from 18-4 to 46-4 in the 66th. Then Simmo was sin-binned.
It's a minor miracle only 6 points were conceded in the last 14 minutes with 12 men.…"
42 minutes ago
The Captain replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"1000% this. As soon as you're gassed you're done. 
Six against and sin bins are death in this current game. Regardless of all other factors if you can't stay disciplined you will get pumped."
49 minutes ago
Seraph replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Hopgood 2 week ban,
"If this is the benchmark for how the Eels are being policed this season, any minor or accidental infringement will be punished to the maximum. Biased or influenced refs maybe, but the MRC is a different beast and while we can fight the charges after…"
54 minutes ago
Parrafan101 replied to EA's discussion Take Aways from the game
"How about our 9s, grant played faster and quicker. By the time Smith or Dasilva got the ball the storms defence was already in our players face hence why we couldn't ball play. We need speed in the play the ball and play shapes. We kept going wide…"
56 minutes ago
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