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Aggressive, unbeaten innings of 95 from 71 sets up strong Somerset reply

ECB Reporters Network05-May-2023Tom Kohler-Cadmore blasted a thrilling first half-century for Somerset to bat them into a promising position on the second day of the LV= Insurance County Championship match with Northamptonshire at TauntonThe visitors began by extending their overnight first innings score of 137 for 4 to 255 all out, James Sales contributing 57, while Jack Leach (3 for 15) and Lewis Gregory (3 for 66) were the most successful bowlers. In reply, Somerset slipped to 61 for 3 before Cameron Bancroft helped Kohler-Cadmore add 53. The former Yorkshire player went on to finish unbeaten on 95, off just 71 balls, having smote 16 fours and a six, with his side 199 for 4, trailing by 56.Play started at 11.30pm following heavy showers, with Northamptonshire looking to claim a first batting point of the season. Sales, on 5, survived a shoulder-high chance to Bancroft at second slip off Craig Overton and it was Gregory who made the first breakthrough with the score on 164 when Rob Keogh, on 19, fell lbw looking to on-drive a fullish delivery.Somerset’s seamers went past the bat on numerous occasions. But their luck changed when Harry Gouldstone followed a short, leg-side delivery from Peter Siddle and feathered a catch to wicketkeeper James Rew.At 181 for 6, Northants were in danger of missing out on batting points again. But Sales and Tom Taylor added 46 for the seventh wicket, forcing Somerset skipper Tom Abell to turn to the left-arm spin of Leach with the total on 203.Taylor pulled fours off successive deliveries from Overton. But, on 28, he carelessly drove Leach in the air to mid-off where Overton took a throat-high catch without having to move.It was 232 for 6 at lunch, with Sales unbeaten on 44. He reached a valuable 96-ball half-century, but began to run out of partners as Jordan Buckingham advanced down the pitch to Leach and was comfortably stumped by Rew. A Sales single off Siddle took his side to 250 and that elusive batting point, but five runs later Ben Sanderson was bowled by a quicker ball from Leach.Sales had to go on the offensive, but chose the wrong shot and was bowled by Siddle attempting a scoop to end the innings.Following a rain break at 8 for 0 in their reply, the home side’s top-order frailty was evident again as Tom Lammonby was trapped on the crease and fell lbw to White for 5.Sean Dickson’s Somerset struggles continued when, having reached 17, he drove at a wide ball from Sanderson and was caught behind. It left the former Durham opener with an average of 7.85 in seven innings for his new county.Abell walked to the crease with his side 25 for 2. He helped Bancroft take the score to 61, but then drove at Buckingham and edged a sharp catch to Ricardo Vasconcelos at first slip, giving the young Australian seamer his first Northants wicket.Kohler-Cadmore, also short of runs at the start of his Somerset career, nervously flashed at Buckingham’s next delivery, well wide of off stump, and was relieved to see the ball fly over the slips for four. He and Bancroft then set about showing Somerset supporters their true capabilities. Boundaries began to flow, with Bancroft particularly strong off the back foot and Kohler-Cadmore looking to be aggressive from the outset.Bancroft brought the 100 up with a sweet clip off his legs for four off White, while his partner appeared intent on hitting his way into form, taking two fours off an over from Sanderson. At 113 for 3, Northants successfully requested a change of ball. It worked immediately as Bancroft got a thick edge to White and wicketkeeper Gouldstone took a low diving catch.Undeterred, Kohler-Cadmore remained in one-day mode and reached a sparkling fifty off just 37 balls, with 11 fours. The bowlers began to bowl shorter to him and he took up the challenge with some meaty pull shots.A straight six off Buckingham brought up another half-century stand, to which the patient Rew contributed seven runs. Kohler-Cadmore was dropped at mid-off on 86 by a backpedalling White off Buckingham, but by then had announced his Somerset arrival in style.

South Australia went from struggling to avoid the follow-on to putting late pressure on NSW thanks to key performances from Alex Carey, Wes Agar and Brendan Doggett

AAP02-Nov-2022South Australia have pried the door open for a potential Sheffield Shield comeback against NSW, claiming three late wickets before stumps on day three to keep all results alive.Struggling to avoid the follow-on at one stage when they slumped to 8 for 229 in reply to NSW’s 5 for 389 declared, the Redbacks managed to scramble their way to 311.Wes Agar then struck twice and Nathan McAndrew once to leave NSW 3 for 35 at stumps, still with a lead of 113 and with both teams able to press for a win heading into the final day.Ultimately NSW were left to rue Moises Henriques putting Brendan Doggett down at first slip on two before he made 49 as part of an 80-run ninth-wicket stand with Ben Manenti. At that point the Redbacks still needed 6 runs to avoid the follow-on.”It could have gone either way, that gets taken and who knows where we are this afternoon,” Doggett said. “But we managed to make the most of the situation and get ourselves in the position to win this game.”The late revival will also have put a smile back on captain Travis Head’s face, after his lean run to start the summer continued in Wollongong. He was caught at first slip for 8 on Wednesday when he swung hard at a wide ball from Liam Hatcher and toed it to Henriques.It means the Test incumbent’s run of scores to start the Shield this summer stands at 76, 6, 5, 0 and 8, while also failing to pass 50 in three one-day games.Head has credits in the bank and is by no means under pressure to hold his spot for Australia’s first Test against West Indies in Perth on November 30.The left-hander was player of the season in last summer’s Ashes win, hitting two centuries and averaging 59.5 while batting at No.5. But he would no doubt like to find some runs before the start of this summer’s Tests, after also enduring tough tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier this year.Head will either feature in up to two more Shield games before the first Test or potentially link up with Australia’s 50-over team for a three-match series against England.After Head fell in the midst of a collapse of 4 for 56, Alex Carey looked superb for SA, cover-driving Liam Hatcher for four three times in one over before going caught behind trying to hook the quick.Agar had earlier provided the morning spark for the Redbacks as nightwatchman with his maiden first-class half-century, before he swept Nathan Lyon to a man in the deep on 57.

West Indies’ Shai Hope agrees the track was a tricky one, but wants his side to “find ways to score”

Hemant Brar27-Jul-20231:14

Wasim Jaffer: ‘West Indies didn’t show up today’

On a Kensington Oval pitch that offered bounce and carry for seamers, and turn for spinners, 15 wickets fell in less than 46 overs in the first ODI between West Indies and India. After being sent in, West Indies were all out for 114 in 23 overs. India, who promoted their white-ball specialists up the order, lost five wickets in the chase before Rohit Sharma, batting at No. 7, hit the winning runs.”To be honest, I never thought the pitch was going to play like that,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation. “It had everything for seamers and spinners, and the run-scoring was quite difficult. But to restrict them to that score was a superb effort from our bowling unit.Related

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“We never thought we would lose five wickets but it was good to give some game time to a lot of those ODI guys who have just come in. But firstly, it was important for us to get into a good position. Restricting them to 115 [114] was a great effort, and I thought we had that commanding position that we needed, which is why we thought okay, we could try some of those guys who haven’t played a lot of cricket in a while and give them a go.”I don’t know when they will get time moving forward, so whenever we get an opportunity like that, we will try to accommodate all these guys.”Rohit also praised Mukesh Kumar who, having made his Test debut earlier on the tour, was playing his first ODI. The seamer started with a maiden and bowled a tight line and length, although his first wicket in the format came off a delivery that was short and wide – Alick Athanaze failed to clear a leaping Ravindra Jadeja at backward point.”Mukesh has been brilliant,” Rohit said. “Even in the Test series we saw he can swing the new ball, has got a bit of pace and is quite consistent as well. So we want to see what he has to offer. I haven’t seen much of him in domestic cricket either, so it was good to see him playing with the white ball as well.”West Indies captain Shai Hope, meanwhile, lamented the lack of application by his batters. Despite losing three wickets inside nine overs, West Indies had reached 88 for 3 with Hope looking in full control. Jadeja then triggered a collapse by sending back Shimron Hetmyer, and West Indies lost their last seven wickets for 26 runs.”Too many words come to mind but let’s just say we didn’t play the way we needed to,” Hope said. “On a challenging surface like that, as a batting group, we need to find ways to score.”Anyone who was watching can see what happened there. Any 9.30am start in the Caribbean will be difficult [for batting] and the Indian bowlers bowled pretty well on this surface, but again we didn’t score enough runs.”

Visitors lead by 165 overnight, with hopes of pushing for third consecutive win

ECB Reporters Network31-Aug-2024Fifties by Jake Libby, Brett D’Oliveira and Adam Hose ensured Worcestershire would make Essex bat again in their rollercoaster match at Chelmsford.When bad light took the players off the field with 20 over remaining on day three of the Vitality County Championship match, Worcestershire had turned a 138-run first-innings deficit into a 165-run lead.Libby laid the foundations for the recovery with a 112-ball 65 at the top of the order. But it was an 80-run stand for the sixth wicket between D’Oliveira (51 from 71 balls) and Hose (64 off 91) – the pair coming together with two runs still required to erase the arrears – that gave Worcestershire hope of securing a third successive victory to move clear of the relegation area.Simon Harmer spearheaded the mercurial Essex attack, sending down 26 overs in the foreshortened day and taking 3 for 110, including the wicket of Hose to an extraordinary delivery. Essex will be looking for a first victory in four games on the final day to maintain their fading interest in the title race.Nightwatchman Joe Leach lasted just four balls on a grey, overcast morning before Sam Cook ended his 21-ball nought by inducing a thick edge through to the wicketkeeper. Gareth Roderick narrowly avoided a pair before he was turned around by Jamie Porter on six and nicked to second slip.Libby found good support from Kashif Ali in a 51-run third-wicket stand until Paul Walter was introduced and with his fourth ball had Ali following the ball across him through to slip.Libby survived a couple of scares but reached his fifty from the 90th ball faced, his eighth four helped on its way high over the wicketkeeper’s head. His latest partner Rob Jones took a liking to Harmer, hitting four successive boundaries, two of them identical shots on the sweep.However, the 55-run fourth-wicket stand was broken soon after lunch when Libby drove loosely at Cook and was caught low down at backward point. And six runs later, Jones went for another sweep against Harmer, this time more uppishly, and Dean Elgar completed the dismissal when running back from square leg.That left Worcestershire five down and still two runs short of making Essex bat again. That landmark was duly achieved and built on as Hose and D’Oliveira dug in obdurately initially to the extent that Porter came on for three overs and went off again without conceding a run. The first fifty of their partnership took 16 overs.The run-rate rose steeply with 31 runs added by the pair in the next four overs before Matt Critchley switched ends to give Harmer a rest and first ball had D’Oliveira fencing to second slip. Harmer’s rest spanned the tea break but his first ball after the interval brought the downfall of Hose, who padded up outside off-stump to a ball that turned prodigiously as it hit the crease to leave him bewildered to see the bails lying on the ground behind him.Harmer had a third wicket to his name when Ethan Brookes went to reverse-sweep, as he had successfully on several occasions in the first innings This time, however, the ball popped up off an edge to Robin Das diving full-length at short leg to cling on one-handed.With the floodlights on and the light deteriorating appreciably, Essex declined the option of taking the new-ball when it was due after 80 over, sticking with their spinners. The gesture proved in vain as the umpires deemed it too dark to continue an over later.

Opener ruled out for up to six weeks with injury suffered in Cape Town Test

Danyal Rasool04-Jan-2025Pakistan have suffered a significant blow after Saim Ayub was ruled out for “up to six weeks” with a right ankle fracture, sustained during the first morning of the Test in Cape Town.The diagnosis rules him out of Pakistan’s two Test matches against the West Indies later this month, as well as a tri-series against South Africa and New Zealand at home in February. It also means he is in a race against time to be fit for the Champions Trophy, which begins in Karachi in just over six weeks.The PCB said an MRI scan conducted on Friday “confirmed the fracture, which has been immobilised in an ankle medical moon boot”. Ayub will remain with the team until the end of the Test.Ayub had to be stretchered off the pitch in just the seventh over of the match, when Ryan Rickelton edged a delivery through the slips, sending Ayub off on a chase to deep third alongside Aamer Jamal. Jamal pulled it back in as Ayub stood poised to be the relay fielder, but lost his balance and twisted his ankle. He went down immediately and appeared in anguish holding the lower part of his leg as the physio rushed on.Despite prolonged treatment outside the boundary line, Ayub was unable to put any weight on his right ankle, and appeared to be in tears as he was placed on to a stretcher and taken off. He was later seen on crutches in the medical boot.The last few months have seen Ayub establish him as an all-format star for Pakistan, playing crucial roles in ODI series wins away in Australia, Zimbabwe as well as here in South Africa, where two hundreds in three matches saw him named the Player of the Series.

Fast bowler left out of table-toppers’ opening two T20 fixtures after fallow recent form

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-2024Issy Wong, the England fast bowler, has joined Western Storm on loan for the Charlotte Edwards Cup after she was left out of the Central Sparks team for their first two matches of their T20 campaign.Wong, who turned 22 last week, played for England as recently as September and featured for Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League in March. But after a quiet start to the season in the 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, she was not selected by the Sparks for their opening T20 fixtures and has pursued a move away.The ECB – who are Wong’s primary employer, as a centrally-contracted player – have approved her loan move to ensure she will be playing competitive cricket. Storm said in a statement: “The ECB have sanctioned the move to ensure fast bowler Wong is able to maximise her playing time over the coming weeks.”Wong played all three formats for England in the 2022 summer at the age of 20 and was one of the stars of the inaugural season of the WPL, taking 15 wickets to help Mumbai Indians to the title – including a hat-trick in the eliminator. But she has struggled for consistency since and has lost her place in England’s squads.This season, she has taken three wickets at 56.33 in five Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fixtures and has also featured for an ECB Development XI against the touring Pakistan squad. She was a surprise omission from the Sparks’ T20 side, though they have won their opening two fixtures.Wong is likely to play a more prominent role for a Storm side who have lost their opening two matches and are currently without Lauren Filer, who is on England duty. She will also target more opportunities with the bat, having spent most of this season batting at No. 8 in 50-over cricket.

He had played just four T20 innings before this and is the latest unknown entity from MI’s scouting stable

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Mar-2024Mumbai Indians have played some of the most iconic T20 batters at No. 3 over the years, from Suryakumar Yadav to Rohit Sharma to Cameron Green. On Sunday night against Gujarat Titans, out walked Naman Dhir at No. 3 when Ishan Kishan fell in the first over of the chase of 169.It was just the sixth T20 game of Dhir’s professional career and he is yet to play a 50-over game in domestic cricket. What was he doing in the IPL then for the five-time champions?Bought for INR 20 lakh at the last auction, Dhir is the latest unknown entity from MI’s scouting stable. He is 24, a hard-hitting batter from Punjab. Known for hitting big sixes down the ground, his four T20 innings before this had earned him just 39 runs since his T20 debut a few months ago in November, with a high score of 17. For Punjab too, he has mostly batted at No. 3 in his fledgling career so far. In the Ranji Trophy, he has two centuries from 20 innings – both from last season – from 14 games for an average of 30.21.Related

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It was in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup – a state T20 league organised by the Punjab Cricket Association – in August last year that he made himself noticed with his hitting exploits. In 12 innings in that tournament, Dhir smashed 466 runs (second-highest) at a strike rate of 192.56 while averaging 42.36. He scored two centuries along the way – 127 off 56 and 105 off 44 – which included a total of 30 sixes.On Sunday, he smoked three back-to-back fours against Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai and a six in the same over. Dhir lofted the first ball of the third over over mid-off, the second over midwicket and the third (after a wide) for a one-bounce four to the square-leg boundary. A dot ball later, Dhir clobbered a half-volley over long-off for an 86-meter six. Omarzai, however, fought back on the last ball of the over by trapping Dhir lbw with the help of a review.”He came out and he was very expressive. Again that lofted shot, you have got to be excited about these things,” Kieron Pollard, Mumbai batting coach, said after the match. “I thought he had a lot more to offer, his calmness even when we lost that first wicket, to continue that intent is a good start for him. This is only the start, at the end of it he scored 20 odd, let’s give him that space, let him enjoy the moment, it’s a big occasion for these guys. As a franchise we’ll continue to unearth new talent. In the future we can continue with continuity as we go along.”Kudos to the scouts, all the guys who work behind the scenes to unearth these sorts of talent within in India. He was one on our radar. He has been in the Mumbai setup over the last couple of months, going to England on a developmental tour. So, it’s something we would’ve seen in that guy.”Mumbai would have thought Dhir did his job with a 10-ball 20, but they eventually fell short by just six runs in the end.

The wicketkeeper-batter will have a clearer indication of her route back after another meeting with the surgeon later this week

Andrew McGlashan23-Oct-2023Alyssa Healy has confirmed that she suffered a severe dog bite to her right index finger on Saturday night, and admitted that in the immediate aftermath of the accident she feared for her career, but is hopeful she will be able to make a full recovery although the timeline of that remains uncertain.Healy was trying to separate her two Staffordshire bull terriers puppies, Misty and Millie, when she suffered the injury which has now put her in doubt for the rest of the WBBL for Sydney Sixers and potentially Australia’s tour to India in December. She had surgery on Sunday morning and will have a clearer indication of the recovery time after another meeting with the surgeon on Thursday.”I’ve got two puppy dogs who were having a rough and tumble, it got a little more than that and unfortunately got my hand in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Healy said. “My right index finger took a bit of a battering. It was quite gory…the positive side of it is that the surgery all went well.”Related

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The initial indications are that there was no bone or tendon damage which would have been more of a concern. “That’s probably the best news possible,” she said. “There was an artery involved which probably made it look more like a crime scene than it needed to be, but the major important things that will take time in coming back weren’t affected.”Won’t lie, when I pulled my finger out initially, I thought I was in strife, but it’s all gone smoothly at the moment. Think it will all just come down to function and whether I can continue to grip the bat the way I need to, or catch the ball, but from all reports, which is really early, is that it’s all pretty positive.”Healy added that after the initial shock of the incident she was now feeling more positive about the prognosis.”I’m not too bad about it,” she said. “These things happen. Dane van Niekerk cut herself cutting an avocado with the Sixers, so we haven’t had much luck with household accidents for the Sixers. I’m really optimistic about it. I’ll take the opportunity to have a rest while I can. It’s not ideal and I was looking forward to the WBBL and contributing significantly for the Sixers. I’ve been given a break now to do that to support them and get myself right, whether it’s for the back end of the season or a big summer ahead.” Speaking after Sixers’ defeat to Sydney Thunder on Sunday, captain Ellyse Perry acknowledged the impact of Healy’s injury.”It’s a huge blow,” she said. “It’s not just a blow for us, it’s a blow for the tournament, because she’s one of the most exciting and mercurial players in the world.”It’s been wonderful to have her playing in the competition over the last nine years. Whenever a player like that’s missing for a period of time, it’s going to be a blow.”For our group, she’s a huge presence. She’s fun, she’s a big character, and the lifeblood of the team. For however long we miss her for, it’s going to be a bummer. We’re just thinking of her and hope she gets better soon.”Depending on the timeline for Healy’s recovery, it could create the need for a new Australia captain if she is unavailable for the multiformat India tour in December. Meg Lanning has yet to confirm if she will be available for the trip and Healy has been her understudy this year. If both Lanning and Healy were unavailable, Tahlia McGrath would be a frontrunner to take the role given she has twice captained Australia in India and Ireland.Sixers have not yet replaced Healy in their WBBL squad with a decision on that likely to be taken once her recovery timeline is confirmed later this week.

The home side have confirmed one change to their XI but Australia are still pondering their final call

Andrew McGlashan27-Jun-2023

Big Picture

Are you ready for round two? The opening of this Ashes delivered everything it had promised. Four more matches of that level of exhilaration will be a test for everyone involved.Given all the talk of the past week, where both teams have had some downtime, it would be easy to think England are the side 1-0 up. But courtesy of the partnership between Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, a stand that will go down in Ashes folklore, it is Australia who hold that advantage and, for now, are quite happy for England to say what they like.However, they also know the result could easily have been different. It probably would have been if England had held their chances, or even if Stuart Broad had not bowled Usman Khawaja with a no-ball. No one is getting carried away that Bazball has been shut down but the opening Test of an Ashes generally shows the way (albeit comparisons with 2005 abound).Related

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So to Lord’s, and five days that will likely decide if Australia can take a vice-like grip – and put themselves on course for a series win in England since 2001 – or whether the home side can draw level and set up a potentially great series.England, for all their talk, and perhaps that’s why they are doing it, have more questions to answer than Australia. Is it right to go without a frontline spinner? Is there enough point-of-difference in the attack? How much can Ben Stokes’ knee go through? Is Ben Duckett a sitting duck to Australia’s quicks outside off stump? Is attack the only way to go?One thing we know, if the players are to be taken at their word, is that they will respond to defeat by trying to be even more aggressive. It was a similar message put forward after the loss to South Africa last year which, ironically, was then followed by (relatively speaking) one of their more restrained batting performances, led by a captain’s innings from Stokes at Old Trafford.Australia believe they have considerable room for improvement. England may rue not winning a Test where Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith made just 35 runs between them. At Lord’s they are also going in with a base of knowledge they did not have before Edgbaston, although their camp is content with how the tactics played out under pressure.The marker for this series has been laid down. What happens next is really anyone’s guess. And that’s a tantalising prospect.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)
England LWLWW
Australia WWDWL

In the spotlight

England’s response to defeat. What has been put together under Stokes and Brendon McCullum has clearly worked wonders, but it can’t be unquestionable. Last summer they bounced back against South Africa but the tourists had a poor batting line-up. Their only other defeat since then was the one-run loss to New Zealand in Wellington. Hitting back after going 1-0 down at the start of a home Ashes is something entirely different and the biggest test of the ethos (or cult?) that Bazball has created.Labuschagne was twice done by Broad’s new outswinger at Edgbaston, collecting his first golden duck in Test cricket in the process. In his last 17 innings he has made just two fifties at an average of 33 which is considerably below the extraordinary high standards he has set. Should he find his groove at Lord’s it would come at the ground where his Test career took off four years ago after he was parachuted into the team as Smith’s concussion sub.

Team news

England have changed the balance of their side by calling up pace bowler Josh Tongue to replace Moeen Ali. Tongue took a five-wicket haul on his debut against Ireland at Lord’s earlier this season. They have backed James Anderson and Stuart Broad to get through another Test.England 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jonny Bairstow, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Ollie Robinson, 10 Josh Tongue, 11 James AndersonAustralia have narrowed down a 12 with the final decision likely to be between Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland. England took Boland at nearly six-an-over at Edgbaston but the grass on the surface at Lord’s could keep him in the frame.Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Scott Boland/Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Pitch and conditions

There was a significant green tinge on the surface ahead of the game, but that is pretty normal for Lord’s. There is the expectation of more pace and bounce than Edgbaston provided. The forecast is fine for the opening day but there is a chance of some interruptions after that.Jonny Bairstow and Brendon McCullum stop for a break at England training•PA Images via Getty Images

Stats and trivia

• Nathan Lyon, who becomes the eighth player to put together 100 consecutive Tests, needs five wickets to reach 500
• Stokes needs five wickets to reach 200 in Tests
• In the last five Tests at Lord’s, since the year-long gap due to Covid, spinners have taken 15 wickets at 50.60
• Conversely, in the last five years the ground provides the lowest average for England’s quicks

Quotes

“Cricket’s a fickle game sometimes. He was the No.1 batter in the world then Broady nicks him off twice. Players like that don’t miss out too often. Broady produced two unbelievable deliveries and it’s always great to see the back of Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith early but quality players always find a way to bounce back. We won’t be reading too much into it but it’s nice knowing there might be something there for Marnus.”
“My phone went crazy for a couple of days. These Ashes series, like World Cup finals, you realise how many people love cricket and how much it means to them. Hearing everyone’s stories about where they were when they found out what happened, or watching at all hours of the day is pretty cool.”

Australia face selection squeeze after impressive return of Mitchell Marsh

Andrew McGlashan09-Jul-2023David Warner’s position could come under scrutiny for the Old Trafford Test with Australia facing a selection squeeze after the impressive return to the side of Mitchell Marsh.Cameron Green, who sat out the Headingley match opening the door for Marsh’s comeback, is on track to be fit for the fourth Test after a minor hamstring strain. He bowled and did sprints ahead of the final day’s play in Leeds as well as briefly acting as a substitute fielder.But Marsh’s stunning century on the opening day, in his first Test for four years, has made him very tough to leave out which means someone else will have to make way unless they opt not to bring Green straight back in.The spotlight has again returned to Warner after his twin failures at Headingley where he twice edged Stuart Broad to slip from around the wicket, making it 17 times he has now fallen to Broad.Related

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• Brook cherishes winning feeling after home-ground heroics

However, that followed some useful contributions earlier in the series, led by the 66 on the opening day at Lord’s in tricky batting conditions, although he was dropped in the slips on 20. His overall Test average since 2021 remains 28.17 and that includes the double century against South Africa at the SCG.Captain Pat Cummins, who is not a selector, said that Australia would use the break before Old Trafford to take stock of their options as they look to avoid the Ashes going to a decider at The Oval.”You keep all options open,” Cummins said. “We’ve got nine or 10 days now, so we’ll take a deep breath. We’ll go away for a few days.”But everyone comes back into it. Greeny should be fit for Manchester. Josh [Hazlewood] will be back in there as well. So we should have a full roster and we’ll have a look at the wicket and have a chat and work out the best XI.”Marsh’s third Test century, all of which have been against England, came from 102 balls while he also chipped in with a couple of wickets.Cummins conceded he would be difficult to omit. “Yeah, it’s possible but, I mean, it was a pretty impressive week, wasn’t it?” he said.David Warner smiles after being dismissed by Stuart Broad for the 17th time•Getty Images

Warner has mapped out his retirement plan, announcing earlier in the tour that he hoped to finish against Pakistan on his home ground of the SCG in January. Prior to that, the original Ashes squad was only selected up to the end of the Lord’s Test which raised further questions over Warner, but he did enough in the early matches to dampen talk somewhat.The situation Australia now find themselves in is not dissimilar to what happened on the 2019 tour when Marnus Labuschagne performed so well as Steven Smith’s temporary replacement that someone else had to make way for Smith’s return. On that occasion the fall guy was Usman Khawaja.Meanwhile, Cummins indicated that he remained on track to play all six Tests on the tour which he had stated as his aim before the World Test Championship final against India. He is the only Australian quick to play all four matches to date. England have had Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson in all three of their attacks, but the latter is now under an injury cloud after suffering back spasms at Headingley.”I feel great, actually, probably better than I would have hoped,” Cummins said. “I don’t have any niggles or injuries. So fingers crossed, should be sweet.”Elsewhere in the squad, Michael Neser has been released to play the next round of County Championship matches for Glamorgan while Josh Inglis, who flew home after Edgbaston for the birth of his child, will return on Friday. Jimmy Peirson filled in for him as reserve wicketkeeper.Australia’s players will break up for a few days and make use of the longer gap between these two Tests before beginning preparations for Old Trafford – the venue where they were able to retain the Ashes in 2019.Cummins gave a succinct response when asked if he felt England’s win would shift the momentum in the series. “No, not really. It’s 2-1.”