England abandon all-out pace attack with recall of Will Jacks for second Ashes Test in Brisbane
Will Jacks will make his third Test appearance, and his first for nearly three years, as England attempt to level the Ashes at the Gabba from Thursday after replacing the injured Mark Wood in the only change to the team that lost the series opener in Perth.The move sees the tourists abandon 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.Though Shoaib Bashir is established as England’s preferred spinner, and has played 19 Tests since Jacks was last picked, he is both a lesser batter and less reliable in the field.The 27-year-old’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 previously admitted that 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 so far.“The humidity is very high here – you step out in the sunlight and just start sweating,” Stokes said.
“So 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.So all those tiny little things we’ve had to consider for this week.I think our liaison officers got tasked with going out and buying about 60 sweatbands for all of us.”Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionZak 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 newspapers, 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 “very 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,For me, 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, I think that’s really important.
If they want to catch us doing that then so be it.”
Bank of England defends OBR’s independence against political attacks; UK banks pass stress tests – business live
Having resisted two invitations to comment on the Office for Budget Responsibility, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey can’t resist swishing at the third (has he been watching England batting in Australia?)Q: You have commented on political attacks on the Federal Reserve before, so are the political attacks on the Office for Budget Responsibility dangerous?Bailey reminds today’s press conference that there are good reasons why the Office for Budget Responsibility was created by George Osborne in 2010, telling reporters:The reason the OBR was created was to ensure there was a source of independent forecasting and an independent assessment of fiscal policy.That’s important, it’s important in many countries. Britain’s not unique… there’s nothing unusual about this absolutely core principle.So where attacks on the OBR are concerned, Bailey says we should “please remember why it was done and the principles underlying it”.However, it’s not for the Bank to get involved in “the day-to-day affairs of that”, he adds
OBR complained to Treasury before budget about leaks spreading ‘misconceptions’
The Office for Budget Responsibility complained to senior Treasury officials in the run-up to the budget about a flurry of leaks that it said spread “misconceptions” about its forecasts, it has emerged.Prof David Miles of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee told MPs on the Treasury select committee on Tuesday that the watchdog had raised the issue of leaks with the department before the chancellor’s statement last week.“I think it was clear that there was lots of information appearing in the press which perhaps wouldn’t normally be out there and that this wasn’t from our point of view particularly helpful,” he said.He added: “We made it clear that they were not helpful and that we weren’t in a position of course to put them right.”Miles was appearing before the committee after the OBR chair, Richard Hughes, resigned on Monday, taking responsibility for the inadvertent release of its budget documents about an hour before Rachel Reeves stood up to announce her tax and spending plans
Age of the ‘scam state’: how an illicit, multibillion-dollar industry has taken root in south-east Asia
For days before the explosions began, the business park had been emptying out. When the bombs went off, they took down empty office blocks and demolished echoing, multi-cuisine food halls. Dynamite toppled a four-storey hospital, silent karaoke complexes, deserted gyms and dorm rooms.So came the end of KK Park, one of south-east Asia’s most infamous “scam centres”, press releases from Myanmar’s junta declared. The facility had held tens of thousands of people, forced to relentlessly defraud people around the world
Siri-us setback: Apple’s AI chief steps down as company lags behind rivals
Apple’s head of artificial intelligence, John Giannandrea, is stepping down from the company. The move comes as the Silicon Valley giant has lagged behind its competitors in rolling out generative AI features, in particular its voice assistant Siri. Apple made the announcement on Monday, thanking Giannandrea for his seven-year tenure at the company.Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said his fellow executive helped the company “in building and advancing our AI work” and allowing Apple to “continue to innovate”. Giannandrea will be replaced by longtime AI researcher Amar Subramanya
The Breakdown | Thirty years of Champions Cup has given us the beastly, beautiful and bizarre
Bloodgate, the ‘Hand of Back’ and a drop goal off ‘someone’s arse’ are among the tournament’s delightful eccentricitiesOn the eve of a new Champions Cup season it is worth remembering when and where it all began. The answer is 30 years ago on the shores of the Black Sea where Farul Constanta of Romania hosted France’s mighty Toulouse in the opening pool game of the old Heineken Cup on 31 October 1995.Let’s just say they were different times. The match was played on a Tuesday and, while the crowd was recorded as 3,000, eyewitnesses were focused on the large number of security personnel with barking Alsatian dogs straining at the leash. Toulouse, boasting an array of internationals including Émile Ntamack and Thomas Castaignède, duly registered eight tries and won 54-10
Robin Smith, former England cricketer, dies aged 62
The former England cricketer Robin Smith has died at the age of 62 with his family and former county Hampshire saying they were devastated by his loss.Smith played 62 Tests and 71 one-day internationals for England between 1988 and 1996 and was a resolute middle-order bulwark for the side during often difficult times for the team. He particularly excelled against pace, making his highest Test score of 175 against the fearsome West Indies attack at Antigua in 1994.He made 4,236 Test runs overall at an average of 43.67, including nine centuries
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