Ashes 2025 live score: England search for early Australia wickets on day three after painful dropped catches – UK Times

“We weren’t playing silly buggers with him not being in the squad and in the mix,” Chair of selectors George Bailey said.

“But I think once we got up here, saw his training, got as much of the background medical information as well, it became a live possibility,” he said. “Then it was just working through the permutations of what would that look like in terms of the amount of overs, what would it look like going forward from that as well.

“I don’t think we thought he was going to be as close, it really changed through the week. Then risk tolerance became the conversation around what could he take on. Yes, he could have played. There would have been some restrictions around the overs and then obviously just the permutations [around that].”

“I would like to be a bit more resilient … getting out on the stroke of the changeover between day and night was not ideal,” he said. “But you’ve just got to keep telling yourself as the batter, it’s just one ball at a time. If you’re thinking too far ahead, you start reading into a ball that might have bounced more off a crack or hit you. You’ve got to stay in the moment as much as you can.

“If you’re bowling good balls in the channel at the Gabba, it’s tough to score with the extra bounce. But it was a nice wicket. Obviously, it’s a little bit cracky here and there, but the majority of the times the balls hit the wicket, it was really nice.

“The two guys at the top just grabbed that momentum of the game early, and we were almost able to piggyback their momentum, and continue to put pressure on.”

“This is as good of a catch as I’ve ever seen,” said former England captain Michael Vaughan on BBC Test Match Special.

“Oh my word! It doesn’t get any better than that, that’s a piece of incredible movement from Jacks.”

“Will Jacks, take a bow,” said former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior said on TNT Sports.

“That is an outstanding catch.

“It is exactly what we were talking about – the fielders getting behind the bowlers.

“He had to cover a huge amount of ground and he throws out a claw. It is an outstanding catch.”

“We’ve obviously got some more work to do tomorrow, but we’re certainly well and truly in this game. More than anything we’ve got to come out with a huge amount of energy and positivity. We know our best cricket can turn a game very quickly, so we’ll turn up tomorrow with that right attitude. We know that, if we’re anywhere near our best, then very quickly this game can turn in our favour.”

“I think there’s a chance there [for the third Test in Adelaide],” Wood told Australian broadcaster Channel 7.

“More realistically, it’s probably more Melbourne and then [Sydney] after that.

“I need to get out of this [brace] first to get moving around.”

“I just hadn’t had it in me to sit down with the coach [Andrew McDonald] and George [Bailey – selectors’ chair] at the moment,” he added.

“That will happen. I’m not the first player to miss a Test match and I won’t be the last.

“But, yeah, I’m obviously pretty gutted because I know the role that I can play within Australian cricket and especially at a venue like this.”

“Absolutely filthy,” Lyon told Australia’s host broadcaster Seven Network when asked how he felt about being dropped.

“But yeah, I can’t do anything about it, so I hope I can play my role in making sure I get the guys ready and do whatever I can to make sure that we get the right result here.”