Ashes round-up: Steve Smith injury, bolshy Brook and Edgbaston pitches
Australia’s talismanic batter Steve Smith appears to have hurt his finger ahead of Friday’s Ashes opener against England.
Former captain Smith can be seen clutching his finger and has had it assessed during training yesterday at Edgbaston.
Though it appears minor, any injury this early on in the English Ashes summer could cause irritation during the Test match, which gets underway in Birmingham tomorrow.
Bolshy Brook
England’s newest batting sensation Harry Brook has dismissed Australia’s powerful bowling attack, stating how it’ll mean he can score runs more quickly.
“Obviously they might have a little bit of extra pace, but if they bowl quicker it tends to go to the boundary quicker,” he said.
“There was a lot of talk of me opening the batting – thank god I’m not doing that.
“I was never asked. It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I’m going to be batting five and they back me batting there.”
Ashes pitches
Ben Stokes has previously said how he wants tough Ashes pitches that’ll play into the Bazball way of playing Test cricket, but Edgbaston’s head groundsman has stated how seamers will not be aided by the Birmingham crease.
“The pitch should be pretty similar, [to 2019, where Australia won by 251 runs]” Gary Barwell told the i. “It was pretty flat, there wasn’t much seam movement, wasn’t a lot of spin.
“There’s not been a lot of seam movement here this year.
“There was uneven bounce towards the end of that game, but England said they loved it.
“It’s in a good state, we’ve got a nice grass covering on it. There’s a lot of water in it – because it’s been so dry, we’ve pumped just short of 300,000 litres of water into it just to keep it alive.
“If you walk on it, it’s wet in places, but that’s my idea. Monday and Tuesday, we won’t water, then Wednesday we will water little sections.”
Ashes teams
England: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.
Australia travelling squad: Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (WK), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
Fixtures
- 1: 16 Jun – 20 Jun, Edgbaston
- 2: 28 Jun – 2 Jul, Lord’s
- 3: 6 Jul – 10 Jul, Headingley
- 4: 19 Jul – 23 Jul, Old Trafford
- 5: 27 Jul – 31 Jul, Oval