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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Michael W. replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Lot of luck involved in an nrl season.
"Galvin was never coming to the eels. He agreed to be a bulldog well before West Tigers gave him permission to leave. It had nothing to do with our R&R team. Galvin talking to us, and had everyone believing he was coming to us, was just a…"
40 minutes ago
Poupou Escobar replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Lot of luck involved in an nrl season.
"He left when we signed Moses in mid-2017. They might've high fived each other on the way through the door."
1 hour ago
Poupou Escobar replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Lot of luck involved in an nrl season.
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1 hour ago
Randy Handlinger replied to Diggs for PM's discussion Spence
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Sorry if I caused offspence"
1 hour ago
Yehez replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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2 hours ago
MeelK replied to Diggs for PM's discussion Spence
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2 hours ago
LB replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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3 hours ago
LB replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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3 hours ago
LB replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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3 hours ago
Joel K replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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LB replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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4 hours ago
The Captain replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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4 hours ago
Yehez replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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4 hours ago
Joel K replied to Poppa's discussion Poppa's Corner; The cattle is the problem, this maybe the catalyst to make us do some drastic things!
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EA replied to EA's discussion Junior Paulo Injury
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Keaon done deal

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