Will Jacks will make his third Test appearance, his first in nearly three years, as England attempt to level the Ashes at the Gabba from Thursday . He replaces the injured Mark Wood in the only change to the team that lost the series opener in Perth.
With this selection the tourists are abandoning the all-out pace attack that bundled Australia out for 132 in their first innings of the opening Test – and was then pummelled by Travis Head in their second – in favour of deepening their batting lineup and adding a spin-bowling option.
The decision followed analysis of recent day-night games, including the role Nathan Lyon has played in his pink-ball outings as well as Kevin Sinclair’s success for West Indies when they became the first and only team to beat Australia in a floodlit match, in Brisbane at the start of last year.
Shoaib Bashir is established as England’s preferred spinner, and has played 19 Tests since Jacks was last picked, but he is a lesser batter and less reliable in the field. The 27-year-old Jacks’s selection means Jofra Archer is the only member of the England team not to have scored a first-class hundred.
England made their selection having trained under floodlights with the pink ball for the first time on Monday night, noting how early it gets dark in Brisbane – a 6.30pm sunset on Tuesday was an hour and a quarter earlier than that in Adelaide, the more regular venue for Australia’s day-night games. “You sort of feel like there’s more time under ‘false light’ than maybe other places where you play day-night cricket,” Stokes said.
Having admitted there were periods in the first Test when he “could have been a lot better as captain”, Stokes is expecting an even more searching test of his leadership at the Gabba. “There’s so many more tactical decisions that go into day-night cricket than a normal Test match,” he said.
“It’s commonly known that the ball is at its peak of difficulty when those lights do come on, so you have to think a lot more tactically when you make decisions. And the night period when the lights are on, there’s a lot more to think about. It’s just a completely different thing to think about as a captain.”
The Queensland climate has also fed into England’s thinking, though the forecast for the first few days of the Test – with temperatures hovering around 28C (82F) – is less extreme than what they have trained in. “The humidity is very high here – you step out in the sunlight and just start sweating,” Stokes said.
“Something we’ve spoken about is being very conscious of keeping that ball as dry as we can, because as soon as the pink Kookaburra goes soft it’s going to be a lot harder to feel like you can make a breakthrough. All those tiny little things we’ve had to consider. I think our liaison officers got tasked with going out and buying about 60 sweatbands for all of us.”
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer.
England have again found themselves on the news pages of Australian papers, after several players were photographed riding motorised scooters without wearing the helmets mandated in Queensland, but are refusing to be cowed by overwhelming media attention into hunkering down in their hotel.
“It’s not unexpected,” Stokes said. “It’s one of those things. We felt it when we got here – there were cameras in front of the hotel from 8am, following us on the golf course, and even when we went out for some lunch. They’re just there. I don’t know what the reason is for that.
“If they think it is going to stop us enjoying this country when we have time off, it is not going to do that. Australia is the best country to tour, there are so many things to do. One of the important things on tour when under pressure is to go out, free your mind, enjoy yourself, and whatever is going on in that kind of world, let it be. We are human. We need to enjoy countries when we get the opportunity because we live in England where it is miserable, freezing cold and dark at 4pm.”
Ollie Pope said he had been aware of it in the days after England lost the first Test. “[It was] everywhere you went, when the guys were trying to unwind,” he said. “For us as cricketers and as people it’s important to be able to switch off and be yourself. If we lose a game like we did and everyone’s gutted, locking your doors and not coming out of your room is the unhealthy thing to do, as we saw in Covid times.
“It’s different, but whatever you’re doing in your off time, just taking your mind away from cricket, that’s really important. If they want to catch us doing that then so be it.”
