The Ashes 2023: The second Test match of The Ashes 2023 series between England Vs Australia will be played at the iconic Lords Cricket Ground.
After a thrilling first Test match at Edgbaston, the next red ball game will be also a mouth-watering one. The 2nd Test match will be played from Wednesday, 28th June 2023 to Sunday, 2nd July 2023.
Australia had a lucky escape in the 1st Test match of The Ashes 2023. The visitors won that match by a margin of just 2 wickets and lead the series by 1-0.
Their batting wasn’t as great as it was against India in the WTC Final 2023. Still, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and David Warner have to fire for the Aussies.
Usman Khawaja’s brilliance in the 1st Test allowed Australia to get past England. Khawaja was well supported by Alex Carey and Travis Head as they scored their half-centuries in the 1st innings. Pat Cummins also batted well in both innings and he guided his team through a famous win at Edgbaston.
Nathan Lyon was the pick of the bowlers in both the innings of the first test. Now Australia will want their players to step up again at Lords and they should aim to be ahead by 2-0.
While England will also aim for a comeback. Their attacking style of play totally backfired because Stokes and Co didn’t nail the opposition when the chips were down for Australia.
But still, the home side will continue to play with an attacking mindset. There is no harm in doing that. However, England should not allow their opposition to get away as they did in the first Test match.
Stokesy declared the innings when the score didn’t even reach the 400 mark and that too when Joe Root was not out on 118 runs.
England would have easily piled up more than 430 runs at least. But that declaration didn’t allow that to happen. The hosts would have been ahead in that red-ball match.
In the first Test, it was difficult to point out who was in the dominant position because of an early declaration from Ben Stokes.
Ahead of the Lords Test match, Stokes and his team will have to ponder upon many things to win the match. They will also rethink whether to include Ben Foakes as a specialist keeper or to drop Jonny Bairstow, who batted well in the first innings. But Jonny also dropped catches which swung the match in Australia’s favour.
England – Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jonny Bairstow/Ben Foakes(wk), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.
Australia - David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood.
The team who will win the toss should look to bat first at Lords. The pitch for the 2nd Ashes Test match is said to be a similar one to Edgbaston, where the first test match was played.
The forecast for the 2nd Test match is that the weather will be cloudy and some rains are also being predicted.
Batters – Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Usman Khawaja
Bowlers – Pat Cummins, Ollie Robinson and Nathan Lyon
All-rounders – Moen Ali and Marnus Labuschagne
Wicket-keeper – Alex Carey
Vice-captain – Jonny Bairstow
Captain – Travis Head
The second Test match of the Ashes 2023 will be shown live on Sony Sports Networks and live streaming will be available on Sonyliv mobile application. The game starts at 3.30 PM Indian Standard Time (IST), 10 AM GMT and 11 AM Local Time.
