Travis Head smashed a T20-style century to put Australia firmly in control of the first Ashes Test on Thursday as England were hit by an injury crisis during a miserable day two in the field at the Gabba.
Inspired by England's daredevilry in Pakistan, Australia batter Travis Head will shun his conservative approach on spinning pitches and enter the Test series against India with the aim to dominate the opposition bowling attack.
All-rounder Ben Stokes looks set to miss the Ashes series against Australia later this year after England's cricket board (ECB) said on Thursday he has undergone a second operation on a broken index finger.
England must treat every Test match like an Ashes series decider as part of their red-ball reset, former captain Nasser Hussain said.
England batsman Kevin Pietersen will travel to Melbourne for a cortisone injection on his troublesome knee on Sunday amid concerns about wicketkeeper Matt Prior's calf ahead of next week's opening Ashes Test.
Morgan insisted that teams are likely to do well if they stop being over-reliant on big names and find a collective group of players can deliver.
Under-fire England head coach Chris Silverwood has tested positive for COVID-19 while quarantining in Melbourne with his family but he is expected to join the team ahead of the fifth Ashes Test in Hobart.
Chief executive Nick Hockley told local media on Wednesday that rising vaccination rates in Australia gave him "a degree of optimism" that the lucrative series against England would go ahead as planned, starting in Brisbane on December 8.
Collingwood takes over after Chris Silverwood stepped down last week
Captain Joe Root has already plundered an English record 1,630 Test runs in 2021 and has two half-centuries in the Ashes series so far with 89 in Brisbane and 62 in Adelaide as his side slipped to two heavy defeats.
- 'I've spoken a lot about consistency away from home, I just hope this is the start of it' - 'It takes a lot of hard work to feel you can walk out onto a ground in an international game and have success and once you get it you want it to stay forever. So you've got to ride that wave for as long as you can'
Images from Day 1 of the second Test match between England and Australia at Lord's, in London on Thursday.
Images from Day 1 of the 5th and final opening Test between Australia and England at the SCG in Sydney on Thursday
England are set to take Durham all rounder Ben Stokes on his first Ashes tour in the hope that he will perform better than in his last Aussies trip, and Monty Panesar may also get a chance.
Images from day one of the first Ashes Test between England and Australia in Nottingham, on Wednesday.
Australia might have thrashed England 5-0 in their previous Ashes contest Down Under but key batsman Steve Smith feels their arch-rivals in Test cricket would be a force to reckon with in the July-August return series in England.
England pacer Chris Woakes says it would have been extremely hard to play in three back-to-back tournaments so he chose the T20 World Cup and the Ashes series over the Indian Premier League.
Hobart will stage the fifth Ashes Test between Australia and England in place of Perth, which was stripped of the hosting rights on Monday because of Western Australia border controls, Cricket Australia said on Saturday.
Former captain Kevin Pietersen believes the form of three players will be key to England's hopes of beating Australia to regain the Ashes in their Test series starting in Cardiff on Wednesday.
Before heading to Australia for the Ashes in the winter, England play seven Tests at home against New Zealand and India this summer.
Stokes said the victory 'blows away' his other memorable moments in an England shirt
England had more of such 'impact' players and that explains why they retained the urn for a third straight time, winning the five-match series 3-0, despite being way below their best. Here's a look at the top performers for England in the series.
'For what I think is a pretty common non-event, it does seem like everyone has a pretty strong opinion about it.'
England stood on the brink of a first Ashes series triumph in Australia for 24 years after reducing the hosts to 213 for seven in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day of the fifth Test on Thursday.
England Lions cricketer Ben Duckett was suspended for pouring a drink on a senior England player reported to be paceman James Anderson after an argument in a Perth bar.
'The Ashes are on the line here, if that is not motivation, I don't know what is.'
Former cricket captain Michael Vaughan, who is spending more time on the dance floor than watching cricket, believes that England can achieve the Ashes double at home against Australia now that high scoring and brilliant Kevin Pietersen is back in favour.
England will look to leave Australia in a spin and retain the Ashes by taking a 3-0 series lead at Old Trafford from Thursday with team selection seen as key on the famously dusty track.
England seamer Stuart Broad doubted whether Australia's travel and quarantine restrictions would lead to a postponement of the end-of-year Ashes series but he said players would want to be promised the best possible environment for the tour.
'If we can put that new ball in the right areas and get a couple of wickets with that new ball, it can really turn quickly.'
After winning the fourth Test match against England and retaining the Ashes, Australia batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner shared their team's celebratory moments with the fans.
England team director Andy Flower will reportedly step down from his post after the end of the return Ashes series starting in November in Australia.
England tailenders James Anderson and Monty Panesar denied Australia victory in the first Ashes Test with an heroic unbeaten last-wicket stand before an ecstatic capacity 16,000-strong crowd in Cardiff on Sunday. Victory seemed assured for the Australians when Paul Collingwood was dismissed for 74 after five hours 43 minutes of dogged resistance with England still needing six to make Australia bat again and a minimum 11.3 overs remaining.
England completed a crushing 347-run victory over Australia with a day to spare in the second Ashes Test on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Former captain Smith, who has endured boos from the home crowds for his role in last year's ball-tampering scandal but has responded by piling up 671 runs in five innings, said it was incredibly special to retain the Ashes in England, something Australia have not done for 18 years.
In a nail-biting finish at the MCG, Australia clinched a thrilling two-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first ODI on Monday night.
Currently, India leads the World Test Championships table with Australia in second place.
Former England Test captain Sir Ian Botham has backed Ashes heroes England to win 5-0 in the return series in Australia as he believes that England has the players to win again, especially a match-winning bowling attack.
Joe Root has stepped down as England's Test captain, the country's cricket board said on Friday, succumbing to pressure from influential figures within the game following a run of poor results capped by dispiriting tours of Australia and the Caribbean.
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