The Ashes: Australia in a Dominant position ahead of the Boxing Day Test

Cricket’s biggest rivalry never ceases to entertain its fans, but it has been pretty much a single-sided contest until now. Australia leads their home Ashes 2-0 after two matches and have gone into the Christmas break with their tails up. 

On the other hand, the English are looking short of confidence and in desperate need of a turnaround. The latter’s performances have been bleak with both bat and ball in the couple of Tests they’ve played so far. 

Gabba: The Fortress   

Pat Cummins was Australia’s new Test captain as Tim Paine had resigned to the role; Steve Smith was made his deputy. 

The Kangaroos went with their full-strength squad, whereas England had rested their veteran fast bowling pair, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, to keep them fresh for the Day and Night Test at Adelaide.  

Joe Root won the toss and took a brave decision to bat first on a seemingly green top. The build-up to the game lived up to its expectations as Mitchell Starc cleaned up Rory Burns on the very first ball of the match. 

A top-order collapse, a duck by their skipper and little resistance from the tail resulted in England scoring a mere 147. Cummins registered a fifer in his very first innings as Australia’s Test captain. 

David Warner took advantage of his dismissal of a no-ball from Ben Stokes and made a crucial 94, and Marnus Labuschagne(74), as usual, was impressive on his home ground. 

The difference was made by Travis Head’s brilliant 152 off 148, which took Australia’s score to a mammoth 425. With 278 runs behind, Malan(82) and Root(89) looked solid but could not convert their 50s into big scores.

They could only manage 298, which gave the Aussies just 20 runs to get in the final innings; with a 4th innings score of 20-1, they managed to win comfortably in their fortress.

Day and Night Test Bullies 

With 8 out of 8 pink ball test wins, Australia went into the Adelaide D/N Test with high confidence despite their captain and Josh Hazlewood missing out due to Covid safety measures and side strain issues, respectively. England was looking to level the series with Anderson and Broad back in their bowling line-up.

Smith, who took charge of the team in Cummins’ absence, won the toss and decided to bat. A century from Labuschagne(103) and 90s from both Warner(95) and Smith(93) gave the Aussies a huge first innings score of 473. 

In reply, once again, only Malan(80) and Root(62) contributed significantly to England’s score of 236. The Aussies scored at a brisk run rate in their second innings and gave England a target of 468. 

Despite Jos Buttler’s gritty grind of 207 balls to save the match, they were bundled out for 192 in the final session of the last day. With a comprehensive 275 run victory, the Australians went 9 out of 9 in their unbeaten streak of D/N Test wins. 

Will it be a whitewash, or will England fight back?            

To get anything away from this Australian team, Joe Root and his men need to come all guns blazing in the remaining games. They are looking too good on their home turf and will be raring to go again with a week’s rest.  

With the looks of it, claiming the urn is just a formality now, and the Aussies will be looking to give their arch rivals a humiliating series defeat. 

Looking forward to seeing how the Boxing Day Test on 26th at the MCG will shape the series.                                                                                

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