Australia keep options open with Ashes squad selection containing few surprises | Geoff Lemon
In the end, there were few surprises.Even the most forgone conclusion of an Ashes squad will still create weeks of speculation one way or another, but answering one question at the top of the order has knocked over the other unresolved ones, tipping like dominoes as we make our way down the list.Barring injury, the only new player in the eventual XI will be Jake Weatherald, the 31-year-old Northern Territorian who in cricketing terms became a South Australian and then a Tasmanian, earning his place over severals seasons of unflashy consistency and a willingness to counterattack.Weatherald would not have made the squad if he were not going to open the batting, which means that Marnus Labuschagne, who was always going to make the team one way or another after getting his run-scoring groove back, will bat three rather than moonlighting at the top.Labuschagne at three means that there is only room for one of Cameron Green or Beau Webster at six.
Green, if he can prove he is over some side soreness in the upcoming Sheffield Shield game, wins that contest by a margin of two Test hundreds, 15kph of bowling speed, and five years of being an unfinished Cricket Australia lab project to engineer the ultimate cricket specimen.Green and Webster both being in the squad means that the Mitch Marsh flight of fancy is formally over, with the white-ball captain not getting a late call-up despite crushing runs in the shorter formats.He could have belted a few at six, but the idea of Marsh doing a 2013 George Bailey has been quashed by 2025 George Bailey, with the long-ago middle-order bat now the chair of selectors.Weatherald, Labuschagne and Green will join the locked-in Steve Smith, Travis Head and Usman Khawaja.Mishaps aside, the only thing that could change any of this after a couple of matches would be the returns of Khawaja as the other opening bat.
Some brusque judges of the game watching from the stands during this year’s rum-soaked tour of the Caribbean may have audibly observed that his eyes are now painted on, a line that for the past two years has looked to have some justification against proper pace.Now Khawaja might have to face not one but both of the two fastest England bowlers on record.Jofra Archer and Mark Wood have between them sent down a collection of the most rapid England spells since reliable speed records began in 2006, and while both have had so many injuries that you can’t assume their availability in a fortnight, they may both line up at Perth hoping for a quick bouncy track.Khawaja takes great satisfaction from defying perceived criticism, and he might respond with a defining score in the first two Tests.But if he collects four low ones in Perth and Brisbane, he might not make it to Adelaide.
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 promotionOf the rest of the squad, Josh Inglis is the reserve wicketkeeper behind Alex Carey and the reserve bat behind everybody else, with his range being quite the luxury,Brendan Doggett and Sean Abbott are the spare fast bowlers, with Doggett clearly the next in after being namechecked multiple times by Bailey in the past few weeks,The frontline bowlers are of course three quarters of the old firm – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon – along with supersub Scott Boland,The injured Pat Cummins will be with the squad but not of the squad when in Perth, performing his role as series captain even though Smith officially has the job for that match on the field,It will be strange to have Smith rolling up for the start of a series as captain, doing the pre-match press conferences and the toss and all of that rigmarole, while knowing that he’s a stand-in.
It’s already giving flashbacks to when he had the full-time job in 2017, before one of his most epic sequences of Ashes run-scoring,But will he also be the one doing the blazer photos and the trophy fondling and the other content capture in the lead-up, given those images will run through the series? Or will it be Cummins to do those jobs? The latter is the man with the full-time gig, but if he has a later injury setback then he may not feature in the series at all,For now, though, looking ahead to the coming weeks, Cummins remains the only known unknown,
European markets down and Asian chipmakers tumble in global stock sell-off amid worries over AI bubble – business live
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Global stock markets fall sharply over AI bubble fears
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Google plans to put datacentres in space to meet demand for AI
Google is hatching plans to put artificial intelligence datacentres into space, with its first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027.Its scientists and engineers believe tightly packed constellations of about 80 solar-powered satellites could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth’s surface equipped with the powerful processors required to meet rising demand for AI.Prices of space launches are falling so quickly that by the middle of the 2030s the running costs of a space-based datacentre could be comparable to one on Earth, according to Google research released on Tuesday.Using satellites could also minimise the impact on the land and water resources needed to cool existing datacentres.Once in orbit, the datacentres would be powered by solar panels that can be up to eight times more productive than those on Earth
Elon Musk’s $1tn Tesla pay deal to be rejected by huge Norway wealth fund
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The Spin | Times are bleak for Pakistan cricket but Test game offers hope of salvation
Pakistan have a new captain. This, admittedly, evokes the same response as learning Watford have hired another manager. A lack of surprise to go with, um, wait, hasn’t he done this before? And so it goes that Shaheen Afridi, the left-arm quick now in charge of the 50-over side, was sacked as their Twenty20 captain last year after only one series at the helm.Pakistani cricket being volatile is just another Tuesday. Go back 15 years and you’ll find a spot-fixing scandal that sent three star players to prison, unfolding while they were unable to host international matches, the exile prompted by a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka men’s team in Lahore
Mountain bike world champion Kate Courtney: ‘In pushing your edge, you find you’re capable of more’
A broken wrist and time away from the sport helped Kate Courtney find new purpose – and the freedom that led to another world titleIn early September, Kate Courtney lined up at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships for the 12th time in her career, but the first time targeting the marathon distance. A figure at the front of the pack in the shorter cross country and short track distances, Courtney would surprise everyone by winning the 77-mile race, claiming the second rainbow jersey of her nearly decade-long career.“The competition at the sharp end is so high and the course was brutal, so I was productively intimidated,” said the 30-year-old Courtney, “I didn’t think much about the pressure of winning, which let me just focus on myself.”Despite a final climb that took an agonizing hour, a 20-minute hiking section over a boulder field, and flat tire on the final descent that could have ended her race, Courtney stayed calm, thanks to a different mental approach this season.“In the past, I felt like I had to be on every podium to feel success,” said Courtney
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