England are broken and Bazball is shredded

Good evening and welcome to live coverage of day two of the third Test of the 2025-26 Ashes series from Adelaide which begins with Australia, having won the toss, on 326 for eight. I think England will be reasonably happy with that though it could have been a lot better had Harry Brook held on to that chance at second slip that would have sent Usman Khawaja back to the hutch on five, had Brydon Carse clung on to a screamer at cover when Alex Carey had just passed fifty and the dopey Snicko operator, in the immortal words of Roy Keane, just ‘done your b—— job’. Will Jacks, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue, from the Cathedral End, were too leaky as well and let Australia get away but not far enough away yet to ruin England’s chances of getting back in the series depending, of course, on a quick kill this morning and then batting long to build a big lead and finally put some mental and physical pressure on Australia’s attack.

Looking for precedents on the way to bat at Adelaide Oval, in day Tests there over the past 20 years, there have been 15 centuries by touring batsmen, memorable doubles from Kevin Pietersen, Brian Lara and Paul Collingwood, daddies from Chris Gayle, KP again, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. KP, Lara, Gayle and Sehwag show that aggression and positivity, once in, earns its rewards, which ought to inspire England’s dashers to build their platforms before chasing anything. The most prolific batsman there, Virat Kohli with three centuries, offers more food for thought. He is obviously in a different realm to every England player except Joe Root, but he can be scratchy outside off at the beginning of his innings and he battled through to make big runs against a quality attack in 2012 and again in 2014.

In the last four home red-ball Tests at Adelaide when Australia have won the toss and batted first they have made 604/7, 550, 570/9 and 517/7. The ground has changed but the pitch, today at least, has no terrors. Since Ben Stokes took over as captain Harry Brook has made seven centuries on tour, Root five, Duckett three, Pope two and Crawley one. They have the firepower. Can they prove their nous? Australia are under par and England now have the opportunity to show the quality Ben Stokes has valued most of all – the ability to apply pressure using not just runs but time to keep their hopes of the Ashes alive.

Play starts at 11.30pm GMT.