AUS vs ENG: Josh Tongue comes in as England name playing XI for 3rd Ashes Test in Adelaide

England have drafted Josh Tongue into their playing XI for the third Ashes Test, starting December 17 at the Adelaide Oval. Tongue comes in place of Gus Atkinson as the visitors are desperate to make a strong comeback after two chastening losses in Perth and Brisbane.

This will be the first game on tour for Tongue, who is fairly thin on Ashes experience, having just played a solitary Test at Lord's in June 2023. The 28-year-old right-arm pacer is also fairly new at the Test level with just six Test appearances and 31 scalps at an average of 30, including a four-wicket haul and two five-fors.

The decision to replace Atkinson comes after he failed to produce the goods with the ball in the opening two Test matches. He went wicketless after bowling 12 overs in the first innings in Perth and leaked runs at 6.77 per over in the second innings without a wicket as Travis Head went after him.

Atkinson couldn't exploit anything substantial from the surface in the first innings at the Gabba either, returning figures of 114/1 in 28 overs. Though he got two wickets in the second innings, it wasn't enough to swing the game England's way as Australia made light work of their target (65). Notably, the tourists have already lost the services of Mark Wood due to the recurrence of a left knee injury.

Meanwhile, the ground staff uses a drop-in wicket at the Adelaide Oval, and it is considered one of the flattest surfaces in Australia. Therefore, the English seamers will have to bend their backs if they are to extract anything from it.

England's playing XI for the third Ashes Test in Adelaide:

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue

England squad for the Ashes: 

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Matthew Fisher, Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts, Jacob Bethell, Shoaib Bashir

Support Staff

Brendon McCullum, Jeetan Patel, Paul Collingwood, Marcus Trescothick, Neil Killeen, Tim Southee