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 Kurupt - Your Mums Favourite Thug's discussion DISGRACEFUL REFEREEING AGAIN!!!
"Agree with all this....I would like to see an objective review of the game and privately present to the refs admin. Then somebody should leak it, so it doesn't seem to be leaked by Parra."
3 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"Now Klein news has come out, I wonder how vulnerable refs are now with bad games."
3 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"As I said, v Dogs in Round 7 he was good. Tonight he lost control I certain areas."
4 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"Yeah AE, he is still very raw."
4 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"He also had a play on last where he pivoted to the left than turned to the right, by the time Volkman got the ball, defence was in his face and had think fast with a rubbish kick.
He tries to be too clever at times, he will mature."
8 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"Greg I think some of the negativity is still warranted in certain aspects."
9 minutes ago
LB replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"Not many here commenting on Sanders. Use him when needed to show club incompetence but now Canberra fans are calling for his head.
An example of a player that had we kept people would say "we let Brown go for him?""
11 minutes ago
LB replied to Kurupt - Your Mums Favourite Thug's discussion DISGRACEFUL REFEREEING AGAIN!!!
"Yeah Freddie Mercury was very average."
1 hour ago
LB replied to Mr 'BringBackFitzy' Analyst's discussion Jenkins most likely to extend at Penrith (edit) signed
"Adam it's actually worrying. This blog would have been prime Chief. "
1 hour ago
Poppa replied to Mr 'BringBackFitzy' Analyst's discussion Jenkins most likely to extend at Penrith (edit) signed
"Tin Tim .....maybe TT you should ask the question why is that so.
Standing back and being critical in most of your commentary is customary of late from you.
Try to learn something about being objective with reason, otherwise  you are just another…"
1 hour ago
Adam Magrath replied to Mr 'BringBackFitzy' Analyst's discussion Jenkins most likely to extend at Penrith (edit) signed
"Closing in on 48 hours, time to lodge a missing person report."
1 hour ago
Poppa replied to Mr 'BringBackFitzy' Analyst's discussion Jenkins most likely to extend at Penrith (edit) signed
""As long as we have fans giving our head office a pass mark we will continue to be irrelevant "
What constitutes relevance when you are not qualified to make such a judgement. Your comment is not arbitrary and only has relevance if you are empowered…"
1 hour ago
Offside replied to Kurupt - Your Mums Favourite Thug's discussion DISGRACEFUL REFEREEING AGAIN!!!
"I was expecting it honestly if it was the other way I'd of blown up lol"
1 hour ago
Longfin Eel replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"I was great to see the determination from the boys, especially when Canberra started to come back. We lose that game just a few weeks ago.
Canberra very nearly won that game though, and they were dreadful. Lots of work still to do, but at least…"
1 hour ago
Longfin Eel replied to Eli Stephens's discussion Should we keep Kelma?
"That's what I was thinking. Last night I saw something of modern middle forward in how he attacked and carried the ball. Still probably off the bench though."
1 hour ago
Parra fan on The Hill replied to Hell On Eels's discussion Game Day Blog R15 v Raiders: Response or Reward? (W15-12, Gritty)
"Going on my previous post.
We lead 3/4 categories in negative plays.This might improve as our younger players get better but wont change drasically until we sign QUALITY and not bums left by the bins by other clubs."
3 hours ago
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