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If you thought Australia’s nail-biting two-wicket victory in the first Test would be as dramatic as this Ashes series got… think again.
An already explosive series hit a new peak at Lord’s, with controversial catches, spirit of the game debates and a short ball barrage causing chaos galore at the world’s most iconic cricket venue. Plus, there was some truly scintillating cricket as well.
It was a match bookended by masterclasses, with Steve Smith’s latest century against England giving Australia an edge in the match they never relinquished; while at the death, Ben Stokes’ heroic 155 threatened a repeat of his famous ‘Miracle of Headingley’.
There were brain explosions, acts of brilliance, nasty injuries, and more bouncers than any Test in the history of the game. And there are still three games to go for the series!
Here are The Roar’s player ratings for the second Ashes Test.
David Warner – 7.5
Warner has perhaps never played a better innings in England than his first-innings 66 on the most treacherous batting day of the Test.
Sent in under overcast skies and with the ball moving substantially in the air, the under-fire opener combined with Usman Khawaja for a critical 73-run opening stand to get through the toughest part of the day. Driving superbly and at last getting some good luck via a dropped catch, he may not have gone on for a truly big score, but his 66 was absolutely invaluable.
He’d add another handy 25 runs as part of a 63-run partnership with Khawaja in the second innings, too.
Usman Khawaja – 7
While Khawaja’s second-innings 77 meant he ended the Test with more runs than Warner – and also with more than Australia’s openers managed combined across the entire 2019 Ashes series – he’s marked slightly lower due to his score coming with the Aussies in control of the Test, rather than in setting it up as his partner did.
Regardless, Khawaja continued his incredible run of form to make it three consecutive half-century stands with Warner, and having looked serene in the second innings, it was only the beginnings of England’s bumper barrage that prevented him getting his name on the Lord’s honour board for a century at the iconic venue.
Marnus Labuschagne – 5.5
While a marked improvement on his nightmare first Test, these are frustrating times for Australia’s No.3.
Having made it past Stuart Broad’s deadly outswinger in both innings at Lord’s, Labuschagne will be furious for not having converted his scores of 47 and 30 into anything more substantial, with his run of innings without a Test century now at a career-worst 19.
With critics now coming for Labuschagne’s poor record overseas compared to at home, he’ll be keener for a big score at Headingley than even he has ever been before.
Steve Smith – 9
After a rare shocker at Edgbaston, Smith took just one Test to return to top form, and stamp himself as the best overseas batter in English conditions since Bradman.
A chanceless 110 was the centrepiece of Australia’s tone-setting first innings 416, and ensured Smith’s name goes up on the honour board for a second time after his double-ton at Lord’s in 2015. He looked just as impregnable in the second, too, before inexplicably picking out deep backward square amid England’s short-ball onslaught for 34.
His most significant blemish came in dropping a sitter to spare a rampant Stokes just after lunch on the final day; briefly, it seemed like that blunder would cost Australia the Test.
Travis Head – 7.5
Smith’s ton received all the plaudits, but Head’s domineering counterattack alongside him on the third evening of Day 1 did just as much to shift the match Australia’s way.
Once again, Head scythed his way to a match-turning score, making 77 from 73 balls before costing himself a century getting stumped trying one big shot too many; nevertheless, he’d put on 118 off just 120 balls for the fourth wicket with Smith already.
Having rarely been targeted with sustained short-pitched bowling in that innings, though, he’d be mercilessly targeted along with his fellow Australians by the England quicks in the second dig, only mustering 7 before tamely popping Broad to short leg.
Cameron Green – 3.5
Green’s talent with both bat and ball has him touted as a future superstar of world cricket; but for now at least, he’s struggling to impact games with either.
Beginning the match with a horrendous slog off Joe Root to fall for a third-ball duck and put an end to Australia’s hopes of killing the match off in the first innings, things didn’t get much better. He’d grit his way to 18 off 67 balls in the second against bouncer after bouncer before finally cracking and steering a simple catch into the deep.
With the ball, he took a vital wicket in each innings, Ollie Pope caught on the boundary in the first and Jonny Bairstow contentiously stumped in the second; around that, though, he was alarmingly expensive, struggling to put the ball in the right spots as Bens Duckett and Stokes in particular cashed in.
He’d still add another stunning catch to his burgeoning highlight reel, diving to his left to cling to a Stokes outside edge in the first innings.
Alex Carey (wk) – 7.5
Carey was unable to repeat his batting performance from the first Test, getting starts before falling for 22 and 21 respectively. But his wicketkeeping continues to go from strength to strength.
From a lightning legside stumping off Nathan Lyon to remove Zak Crawley, all the way to his far more contentious stumping to see the back of Bairstow on Day 5, Carey was all but faultless with the gloves, one half-chance diving to his right to spare Stokes the some of his mistakes.
His hand in the removal of Ben Duckett in the second innings, setting up down the leg side to Hazlewood and taking the offering one-handed, was pure genius – and while far more controversial, his thinking to throw the stumps down was clever thinking too.
Mitchell Starc – 8
After being left out of the first Test XI, Starc would come to vindicate the decision to choose him over Scott Boland at Lord’s.
While hit for plenty of runs still, especially on the second day as England’s top order ran amok, Starc would claim a team-high six wickets for the match, all but the last – Josh Tongue castled to end the Test – members of the top order.
Such is the paradox with Starc: as wayward as he can be at his worst, he is only ever one ball away from producing a delivery like the unplayable peach to knock out Pope’s middle stump, while his removal of Root with the short ball on Day 2 was a crucial moment in the game.
Pat Cummins (c) – 7
With ball, bat and as captain, Cummins’ whirlwind series to date has thrown just about everything humanly possible at him.
Down in England’s first innings with just one tail-end wicket, though praised for his innovation in bowling over after over of bouncers that left the hosts in disarray, his greatness was all too apparent on the fourth evening.
Removing first Root and then Harry Brook in the same over, the second to a ball ever bit as good as his famous jaffa to Root during the 2019 series, in the same over to send England crashing to 4/41, he’d return to bounce out Robinson and get himself four wickets for the match.
Does lose a mark, though, for some baffling captaincy on the last day, first allowing Stokes to get going before restoring calm to proceedings with some one-day bowling, then inexplicably ordering a short-ball assault on England’s last pair instead of targeting the stumps.
Nathan Lyon – 5
Lyon only bowled 13 overs in the second Test, with a severe calf injury on Day 2 likely to rule him out of the rest of the series.
But that’s not to say he didn’t have an impact, removing Crawley with Carey’s help early in his innings; it was with the bat, though, where his most famous contribution lay, limping onto Lord’s with a standing ovation at his back after electing to bat while hardly able to run.
He and Starc would add 15 painful, but vital-looking, runs, vindicating his decision to bat, and ensuring he once again would play a key role in Ashes folklore in the years to come.
Josh Hazlewood – 5.5
The veteran right-armer still seems… off compared to his remarkable past records both against England and in the country. Slightly down on pace and with his lack of variety, Stokes in particular cashed in heavily on the final day.
Five wickets for the match, though, is substantially better than at Edgbaston – and includes the crucial wicket of Stokes on the last day – though with two Tests still to go, the man mountain will be hoping for conditions more suited to his undisputed bowling skills.
Mitchell Starc celebrates the wicket of Harry Brook. (Photo by Gareth Copley – ECB/ECB via Getty Images)
Zak Crawley – 5
Having batted superbly in the first innings to reach 48 at better than a run a ball, Crawley would once again throw away a promising start, stumped down the leg side by Carey.
Before that, his 91-run first innings partnership with Duckett gave England hope of a win for the ages; while he’ll be disappointed he couldn’t go on, considering how all openers fared in the last Ashes series in England, making 47 is more than acceptable.
Ben Duckett – 9
With a monster century at Lord’s against Ireland a month ago, Duckett’s love affair with the hallowed ground has continued.
As Australia struggled to figure out what to bowl to him, Duckett pulled, hooked, cut and glided his way towards 50 and then beyond it; he’d make 98 in the first innings before spooning a catch to fine leg, while he’d do likewise to give England hope of a remarkable run chase when he made 83 in the second, partnering with Stokes for a 132-run partnership.
Having looked a weak link at Edgbaston, the nuggetty opener this time was England’s clear standout bat until Stokes’ explosion.
Ollie Pope – 3.5
Pope’s Test began disastrously, when he looked to badly injure a shoulder making a diving stop in Round 1; and ended in disappointment, run through by a Starc seed to have his middle-stump utterly flattened.
He’d looked untroubled in making 42 in England’s first innings before hooking Green to deep backward square to throw away a half-century. With his shoulder going again in the second innings, it remains to be seen whether he’ll need to be replaced for Headingley.
Joe Root – 3
Utterly imperious at Edgbaston, Root’s golden run would come crashing down at Lord’s.
Failing to score anything of note in either innings, his first-innings 10 is what truly got the Australians believing in the bouncer battle, tamely pulling Starc to a diving Smith at backward square.
In the second, he’d cop a Cummins brute to finish with 18 – a far cry from his first Test heroics – though he did take some nice catches at short leg in between.
Harry Brook – 5
After a pair of 40s at Edgbaston, Brook finally reached 50 for the first time this series in England’s first innings – but it would be his dismissal for 50 on Day 3 that would be condemned nationwide.
Backing away trying to heave at Starc only to pop up a chance for Cummins at deep cover, Brook’s attack-only mindset was roundly criticised – but there was little he could do about his dismissal in the second innings, the Australian captain finding the top of his off stump with one of the best deliveries of his glittering career.
Ben Stokes (c) – 9.5
Up until the final day at Lord’s, Stokes was sitting comfortably at a 6.5 – accurate but sparingly used with the ball, tactically astute as captain to stymy Australia’s innings with a short-ball onslaught of their own, and frustrating with the bat.
That changed on a dime on the final day, with Stokes bludgeoning an Ashes record nine sixes in an innings to make up for a slow start and put pressure right on the Australian attack.
In the end, after 155 runs, it was fatigue that got him as much as Hazlewood, attempting to hook but popping up a catch to Carey to end one of the greatest innings in the history of Test match cricket.
Jonny Bairstow (wk) – 3
Once again ordinary with the wicketkeeping gloves, making a number of blunders against the swinging ball in Australia’s second innings in particular, Bairstow also struggled with the bat to a far greater degree than at Edgbaston.
Making just 16 and 10 before falling, the latter dismissal one of cricket’s greatest recent controversies, there would be no Bairstow heroics in England’s run chase like he’d managed repeatedly in 2022.
Stuart Broad – 8
Having been comfortably dealt with throughout the Test, Broad’s match changed on Day 4 when he switched to a bouncer barrage.
His successful bumping out of Khawaja, Head and Cummins showed even near the end of his career, he still has enough fire in the belly to give it all to the cause; while his stoic rearguard in partnership with Stokes on the final day really confirmed his commitment to the cause.
Ollie Robinson – 6.5
While he took five wickets for the match, Robinson was far less threatening than at Edgbaston.
Tight but too slow to have a proper impact on international cricket, he’d take three first-innings wickets (two tailenders) before another two in the second where he’d account for Green and Carey, to finish it as, remarkably, the second-highest wicket-taker across the two Tests with 10 at 24.6.
With the bat, his feckless swing with fielders in the deep, especially after being given the responsibility ahead of Anderson and Tongue in the batting order, was made to look even more ordinary by how close Anderson and Tongue came in the end to the winning target.
Josh Tongue – 7
Surprisingly picked for the second Test ahead of Mark Wood as a fourth seamer, the emerging quick would end it as arguably the best of England’s attack.
After taking out both openers bowled on the first morning, Tongue claimed excellent figures of 3/98 for the innings, with the scalps of Warner, Khawaja and Smith to his name.
Another two would follow in the second innings, Warner again as well as Smith – quite the names to have on your list of dismissals.
James Anderson – 2
Always likely to be rested regardless for the third Test, England have a conundrum on their hands: is the champion seamer an automatic selection anymore?
Unable to prise out Australia’s openers against the swinging ball in both innings at Lord’s, Anderson would take a single scalp in each innings, including one from a poor ball that Labuschagne simply cut to point.
With just three wickets at 75 for the series and with a plethora of other quicks to choose from, this could well be the last we see of Anderson for the series – and indeed, his glittering Test career as a whole.
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