Joe Root not a fan of day-night Ashes Test but aware he needs to shine under lights
It rarely takes much for an Englishman to be accused of whingeing in Australia but when Joe Root was asked a simple question on Sunday – whether a series such as the Ashes actually needs day-night Test cricket – he simply gave an honest answer,“I personally don’t think so,” replied Root, before England took to the nets at the Gabba for Thursday’s second Test,“It’s obviously very successful and popular here, and obviously Australia have got a very good record [played 14, won 13],You can see why we’re playing one of those games,“Ultimately, you know from two years out it is going to be there.
It’s part and parcel of making sure you’re ready for it.A series like this, does it need it? I don’t think so … but it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be here either.I don’t mind it.I mean, I don’t think it’s as good as traditional Test cricket.But it’s in the schedule.
We’ve got to play it and just got to make sure we’re better than them at it.”Like his opposite number, Steve Smith, Root’s typically stellar numbers take a bit of a nose dive against the pink ball.The Yorkshireman has played all seven of England’s floodlit Tests and, despite a century in his first outing against West Indies in 2017, a career average of 50.9 drops to 38.5.
Conversely, the bowler Mitchell Starc averages 28.97 at a strike rate of 49.9 overall but 17.08 and 33.3 respectively with a pink ball.
In the left-armer’s last such outing, in Jamaica in July, he claimed six for nine as West Indies were razed for 27 all out — career-best figures that lasted all of one Test match after taking seven for 58 on day one in Perth,The head-to-head between Root and Starc is already shaping up to be one of the deciding factors in this series,Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have traditionally bothered him far more but, in their absence last week, it was the evergreen Starc who wiped him out for scores of nought and eight,The first was just a good ball, Root has since reasoned; the kind that would likely not carry to slip back home,The second, bowled chopping on amid England’s second-day collapse, was a miscalculation on his part.
“I know I’m a good player,” he said.“I know I’m going to be able to score runs again.”Wobble-seam has become Starc’s weapon of choice these days – he wished he had listened to Hazlewood and Cummins about it sooner – but in muggy Brisbane there may well be swing on offer too.England, 1-0 down, have even more to overcome this week and runs from their premier batter would go some way towards them emerging from their self-inflicted hole.This may not necessarily require a century should another rapid-fire shootout unfold but Root’s lack of one on Australian soil continues to follow him on tour.
“I didn’t have long enough to think about it,” was his latest self-effacing answer, when asked if the statistic had preyed on his mind in Perth.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 promotionRoot and his teammates went hard at it on Sunday, with some American west coast hip-hop serving as the soundtrack to an Australian east coast session on a sweltering afternoon.Monday and Wednesday are the key days for England’s preparations, taking place in the evening under lights.Mark Wood’s absence with a growling knee has opened up a spot in the XI and the sight of Will Jacks in the nets among the main group of batters offered a possible clue as to the favourite to come in.The all-rounder’s off-breaks are serviceable and extra runs at No 8 could offset those he leaks with the ball.
That said, Josh Tongue has been with the Lions in Canberra and remains a live option were England to stick with all-out pace, while the off-spinner Shoaib Bashir was in the 12-man matchday squad last week,Much to ponder, then, at a ground where England have not won a Test for more than 40 years,“It is a chance to make a bit of history,” said Root, regarding this statistic,“It would make it all the sweeter if we get over the line here,”
England’s water industry issued £10.5bn in ‘green bonds’ despite pollution record
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AI’s safety features can be circumvented with poetry, research finds
Poetry can be linguistically and structurally unpredictable – and that’s part of its joy. But one man’s joy, it turns out, can be a nightmare for AI models.Those are the recent findings of researchers out of Italy’s Icaro Lab, an initiative from a small ethical AI company called DexAI. In an experiment designed to test the efficacy of guardrails put on artificial intelligence models, the researchers wrote 20 poems in Italian and English that all ended with an explicit request to produce harmful content such as hate speech or self-harm.They found that the poetry’s lack of predictability was enough to get the AI models to respond to harmful requests they had been trained to avoid – a process know as “jailbreaking”
ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn
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Middlesex CCC chief executive investigated after complaint by staff member
The Middlesex County Cricket Club chief executive, Andrew Cornish, has taken leave of absence from the club following an allegation of misconduct made by another member of staff.The Guardian has learned that Middlesex have handed the complaint over to the Cricket Regulator, which has launched an investigation into the matter.Cornish is understood to have stepped away from the club 10 days ago. Middlesex declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian, but the club’s board is expected to inform staff on Monday about Cornish’s absence.Cornish denies any inappropriate behaviour, and he has claimed to be unaware of the details of any complaints made against him
Duplantis wins top award and takes aim at Grand Slam Track’s exclusion of field events
Armand Duplantis has capped a remarkable 2025, in which he broke four world records and won another world title, by being named World Athletics’ male athlete of the year.Immediately after picking up the award, the Swedish pole vaulter took aim at Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, which collapsed in the summer and is still yet to pay athletes their full prize money.“There was another tour that tried to exclude field events,” Duplantis said to an audience that included multiple athletics stars as well Prince Albert II of Monaco. “That didn’t didn’t go so well, did it? I am very proud to represent field eventers.”That received applause and laughter in the room, and there was more when Duplantis, who was unbeaten in 16 competitions in 2025, said he was “delighted and honoured to win the award – I just love pushing myself and pushing boundaries”
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