Steven Smith: “It’s a huge honor obviously. Been a pretty interesting morning, a bit has been going on. Feel for Patty missing this game, but I’ll try and lead on the way he started last week, and hopefully, we can have a really good week. [Spoken to Cummins?] Just good luck, go for it, it’s your team this week, control the boys and keep moving forward. They’re obviously big losses for us [Cummins and Hazlewood], they’re two world-class bowlers. But we’ve been really excited by what we’ve seen from Jhye Richardson for a few years now and Michael Neser, I’m really excited for him, he’s worked his backside off for a long time, been 12th man numerous times and he gets his opportunity, we’re all looking forward to playing with him this week, it’s a great moment for him”
Joe Root: “We would have batted. It looks like a good surface but we get a new pink ball in our hand early. Great for Stuart to come in and make that milestone of 150 Tests. Jack Leach misses out. It’s a brave call but we hope the seamers can make use of the conditions.”
The Ashes 2nd Test (D/N), Australia vs England Highlights today, Thursday 16-12-2021, from Adelaide Oval.
Steven Smith win the toss and chose to bowl second.
Australia team: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (c), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon.
England team: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
Form guide
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: WLDLW
England: LLWLD
Match Timings: 04:00 GMT | 14:30 Local
Umpires – Paul Wilson, Rod Tucker
TV Umpires – Paul Reiffel
Match Referee – David Boon
Reserve Umpire – Sam Nogajski
Match number – Test no. 2441
