The England Ashes men’s team released three players – Jacob Bethell, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue – to join the England Lions squad for the upcoming two-day match against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI.
England are currently on tour to Australia for the heritage year and the Ashes tournament, while the England Lions are also on tour to the Australian islands for a parallel tour to the main Ashes tour.
Australia won the first Ashes game due to the dominance of Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who took ten wickets in the game. After this, Travis Head along with Marnus Labuschagne led Australia to victory by 8 wickets.
Jacob Bethel, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue join Lions squad
England have released three of their players from the main Ashes squad as they are likely to be included in the English Lions squad for the upcoming match against the Prime Minister’s XI.
These players will not be part of the next Ashes match against Australia at Gabba. The players who have been released are Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts and Jacob Bethel.
These players were not included in the playing eleven of the first Test and are merely injury replacements for the main England XI.
England look to make a comeback in Brisbane
England arrived at the Optus Stadium in Perth and played the first match of the Ashes against what was considered the weakest Australian team of the century.
The Australian team also missed its dangerous bowling trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Both the fast bowlers were not part of the Australian playing eleven.
However, his batting collapsed against Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland and was then hit by the blow of Travis Head. Australia defeated England for the second consecutive match after the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Usman Khawaja, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will be left out of Brisbane
The Australian team has suffered several major setbacks as players like Usman Khawaja, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have been ruled out due to serious injuries.
While Cummins was ruled out months ago, his injury still lingers, and there has been no confirmation of his return ahead of the Gabba Test. However, Hazlewood was recently injured and is ready to return, but not before the second Ashes Test.
Finally, Usman Khawaja was injured in the last game and is probably not guaranteed to open the innings for Australia, but he is by no means likely to be dropped from the team. His back injury was a matter of concern, but it proved to be a boon for Australia as captain Steve Smith sent on Travis Head as his replacement.
Head, very different from Khawaja, scored very quickly and put pressure on the English bowlers, who made the target of 200 look almost like a modest target on such a difficult track.
Also read: Ravi Shastri indirectly calls Gautam Gambhir ‘rubbish’ amid India’s Guwahati Test defeat
