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England will be without their captain Joe Root to start day four in Adelaide in another setback to their nightmare Ashes series.
Root suffered a suspected abdomen injury while batting during the team warm-ups and won’t take the field until he’s further assessed by the England medical team.
“England captain Joe Root will not be on the field at the start of play today after being hit in the abdomen during throw downs in the warm-up before play,” an England Cricket spokesman said.
“He is currently being assessed by the medical team.”
Root (62) and No.3 Dawid Malan (80) were the only England batters to show any resistance in the first innings, combining for their second century partnership of the series.
He’s also been used a lot bowling-wise after the selectors opted not to pick specialist spinner in Jack Leach, bowling 20 overs of off-spinners in the first innings and two so far in the second.
Vice-captain Ben Stokes is likely to take the on-field captaincy reins.
England are staring down the barrel of a 2-0 series deficit with Australia’s lead growing to 282 at stumps on day three.
Matthew Hayden’s assessment of the Adelaide Oval pitch comes as more bad news to the tourists, with the former Australian opener expecting it to get better and better for the spinners.
“It’s a very good looking wicket still and we’re seeing the common story here of just how much the spinners are coming into play,” Hayden said on Channel 7’s Ashes coverage.
“Why that is, by the surface, you can’t really see, apart from there’s a lot of fluffy grass on it. So to me, (Australian off-spinner Nathan) Lyon is the one that’s going to make the most impact and that declaration has got to come pretty soon.”
Australia resume their second innings on 1-45 with Marcus Harris (21) and nightwatchman Michael Neser (2) at the crease.
More to come.
