Australia suffered a close three wickets defeat at the hands of England in a major turnaround of events during the third Ashes 2023 Test in Headingley. The loss for visitors came after winning the first two games of the five-match series in Edgbaston and Lord’s, respectively.
Asked to bat first, Australia were bundled out by England for 263 runs in 60.4 overs. Mitchell Marsh smashed a brilliant ton for his team and contributed impressive 118 runs to Australia’s total. Meanwhile, Mark Wood claimed a fifer for England and played a major role in restricting the visitors to an average score.
In reply, England failed to capitalise on the hard work of their bowlers and finished their innings 26 runs behind Australia’s total. Aussie skipper Pat Cummins bagged a six-fer for the Australian side. However, Australia couldn’t build much on the lead and managed to set a target of just 250 runs for the hosts.
Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, England eventually managed to register a close three-wicket win and kept their hopes alive in the five-match Ashes 2023 series.
Although Marsh’s inclusion in the playing XI of the third Test turned out to be a great decision for the Aussie side, experienced opener David Warner yet again failed to leave his mark. Warner was dismissed cheaply during both innings in Headingley, and his average in the ongoing Ashes series has now dipped down to 23.50 with just one fifty in six innings. It is worth mentioning that Warner fell victim to Stuart Broad twice in the same match and has overall been trapped by the English seamer record 17 times in Test cricket.
The poor run by the left-handed batter attracted huge criticism, and many experts called for him to be dropped from the team for the next match. Australia captain Cummins spoke regarding the same in the post-match press conference and said that if needed, they’ll replace Warner. Cummins also assured that Cameron Green will be fit until the next game and will likely feature in the team for the Manchester Test.
“We’ll keep all our options open. We’ve got nine or 10 days now, so we’ll take a deep breath. We’ll go away for a few days but everyone comes back into it. Greeny should be fit for Manchester, we should have a full roster. So we’ll have a look at the wicket, have a chat and work out the best XI,” said Cummins.
