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Australia will have all the momentum when they take on England in the third Ashes Test and with the track at Edgbaston expected to be a more sporting one than earlier, this could get interesting.
LOOKING FOR DAY 3? DAY 3 LIVE BLOG
You can follow live scores and a blog of the first day of this second Ashes Test from 8:00pm AEST.
While the series remains tied at 1-1, the games have been anything but close. The team that has won the toss, has gone on to not only win the Test but also done it with a oh-so-wide margin.
And even on flat, docile tracks, the Tests have lasted four days apiece.
Not surprisingly, the talk between the previous Test and this has revolved around the nature of the pitch that will be on offer at Edgbaston. England captain Alastair Cook had said at the end of the previous Test he hoped for the tracks to return to their original nature; to being typical English tracks that assisted seamers.
On the other hand, Australian quick Mitchell Starc challenged the curators to prepare such a track for Edgbaston given the presence of quality in Australia’s seam bowling arsenal.
One way or the other, it looks like the toss could prove to be crucial yet again, but the hope is both teams would have learnt to bat second better than they did in the first two Tests.
As far as the teams are concerned, England will enter the game with a change that was brought about immediately after the second Test defeat. Gary Ballance’s poor batting form paved way for Jonny Bairstow, who has gone well in the county circuit recently while playing for Jason Gillespie’s Yorkshire.
The rest of the 13-man squad remains the same for England but it still remains to be seen if they bring in either Steven Finn or Adil Rashid in place of one of those in the squad.
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By looks of things, the pitch at Edgbaston might not deserve two spinners. Similarly there haven’t been too many talks of any changes to the pace bowling department either, which implies the Ballance-Bairstow swap will be the only one.
Australia have decided to keep Peter Nevill ahead of Brad Haddin in the team, despite the latter having said he was happy to return to the squad. Chris Rogers’ fitness concerns also grew manifold after he felt wobbly a day after being hit on his head by a bouncer, but he played out the entire net session on Tuesday without issues and could make the starting XI.
Follow the live scores and blog of this opening day of the third Ashes Test between England and Australia from 8:00pm AEST on Wednesday and post your comments in the section below.
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