The Ashes

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All-rounder Beau Webster has been released from Australia's Test squad to play against England Lions in a four-day match starting on Friday.

The 32-year-old was left out of Australia's squad for the second Ashes Test with batter Josh Inglis preferred but will get a chance to push his case for a recall.

Webster is one of six capped players in a strong Australia A side. Bowler Jhye Richardson, spinner Todd Murphy, batters Matt Renshaw and Nathan McSweeney plus all-rounder Cooper Connolly are also in the XI.

Batter Jacob Bethell and spinner Shoaib Bashir were also added to England Lions' squad following their omission from the Test side.

Australia A XI: Matthew Renshaw, Campbell Kellaway, Nathan McSweeney (c), Cooper Connolly, Beau Webster, Josh Philippe (wk), Xavier Bartlett, Fergus O'Neill, Jhye Richardson, Todd Murphy, Ryan Hadley

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Before the second Ashes Test in Brisbane our chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt hosted a Reddit AMA. Here is a selection of your questions and his answers...

Will Joe Root break the curse and ton up in Brisbane, or even this tour? If he doesn't score a hundred would you say this prevents him from being considered one of the all-time greats?

I really do think Joe Root will tick off that elusive hundred on this tour. He has been on a different level over the past couple of years, making run-scoring look effortless. It's like he has 'completed' batting.

It's worth remembering that on his previous three tours here, on one he was a very young man and on the other two he was captain. One slight concern was how pumped up he looked in the first Test. Hopefully he will be calmer from now on.

Even if he doesn't get a hundred in Australia, surely the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket (he may even end as the highest) must be considered an all-time great? I'm sure there are some who will believe his record should have an asterisk next to it if he doesn't score a hundred in Australia.

A lot has been said about this being Australia's weakest Ashes side at home since 2010-11. But that England top six, wicketkeeper and bowling attack were all class. How many of this current English team would realistically walk into the 2010-11 England Ashes XI?

OK, say we picked a combined XI of the two teams and could only go like-for-like (as in, we couldn't move the batting order around), this would be my team: Strauss, Cook, Trott, Root, Pietersen, Stokes, Prior, Swann, Archer, Tremlett, Anderson.

It's tough on Duckett and Brook, and Broad - he got injured after two Tests in 2010-11. Tremlett might raise a few eyebrows, but he was superb in that series. Maybe he'll be nudged out by Carse by the end of this one.

If England lose 4-0 or 5-0 surely the Bazball project has to be over? However, I can't see Stokes willingly dropping back into the ranks, and with Brook, the poster child of Bazball, being the captain elect it seems like England are short of directions to turn. What comes next?

This would be a really interesting situation. When this has happened to England before on Ashes tours, it has resulted in sweeping changes. I'm not sure that would be the case this time, for the reasons you've hinted towards.

I don't think there's a better option as captain than Stokes, and Brendon McCullum has a contract until 2027. If England are well beaten here, it might be that Stokes and McCullum are the men to rebuild.

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Before the second Ashes Test in Brisbane our chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt hosted a Reddit AMA. Here is a selection of your questions and his answers...

What do you think of England's preparation for the Ashes? Were England better off training at the Gabba than sending players to the Lions match in Canberra?

I'm not too sure they could have done much more. The schedule before the series didn't allow time for more warm-up matches and a lot of the players were in New Zealand for white-ball cricket anyway.

The conditions at Lilac Hill were nothing like Perth Stadium, but that is beyond England's control. With the Canberra decision, that looks like the right one given the conditions in Brisbane. It is rocket hot here, and the Lions were shivering under blankets in Canberra on Sunday night.

It's a problem that can only be fixed by genuine collaboration between boards. Rather than England and Australia trying to hinder one another's preparations, they should come together to agree they will lay on the best possible conditions and opposition in the build-up to Ashes series.

Statistically, England are going to lose the pink-ball Test. How can I even get myself to stay up for the third Test at 2-0 down? What do you enjoy the most when down under?

Don't write England off this week. They have got a chance to level this series. Even if they don't, is there not something magical about following the cricket late at night over the Christmas period? Follow the darts, then switch to the cricket. That would be my advice.

Australia is a fantastic country. I first came here to do some cricket coaching in 2006-07 and have loved it ever since. The best thing? The outdoor lifestyle. And the coffee.

If you had to put money on it what do you think the result of the Brisbane Test will be?

I think England will win. I'm not 100% sure why I think this, other than I've been really impressed by their attitude since they started training in Brisbane. All cricketing logic says Australia should win, but I fancy England.

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Jacob Bethell and Shoaib Bashir will join the England Lions squad for the unofficial Test against Australia A.

The two members of England's Ashes touring party will play in the four-day match, which is being played at Allan Border Field in Brisbane from Friday.

The fixture will be Bethell's third appearance for the Lions on this tour, having represented them in the warm-up game against the senior England side prior to the first Test in Perth, and in matches against Cricket Australia and Prime Minister's XIs.

Bashir represented England in the first of those matches, playing for the first time since he injured his finger in the third Test of England's summer series against India.

He did not appear in any of the subsequent Lions fixtures, and batting all-rounder Will Jacks, who bowls off spin, has been selected ahead of him for Thursday's second Test at The Gabba.

The match against Australia A marks the end of the Lions tour, although England may choose to retain members of the squad should they sustain injuries in the second Test.

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Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes Australia will "only get better" after Usman Khawaja was ruled out of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane.

"Say Travis Head is the opening batter and Josh Inglis comes at five, [Cameron] Green at six, Alex Carey at seven," said Vaughan on the Stick to Cricket podcast.

"They may not play the spinner with the pink ball, so they may end up with [Beau] Webster at eight, [Pat] Cummins at nine if he comes back, [Mitchell] Starc at 10 and [Scott] Boland 11.

"You are looking at Australia thinking, 'How do you beat that?'

"England had the best team they could've picked for the conditions in Perth, whereas it wasn't Australia's best team. My worry for England is that Australia will get better."

Australia captain Cummins has been left out of the home squad for the second Test, with Brendan Doggett set to play after making his debut in Perth.

However rumours had been building about Cummins' possible involvement, external following a lack of updates Cricket Australia on his recovery from a back injury.

Vaughan also repeated his concerns about England's line-up not playing in last weekend's pink-ball game in Canberra.

"It is like if Tiger Woods goes to the Masters and says he has prepared by going on the crazy golf and got a couple of shots through the windmill and 'I'm ready'. It is similar," Vaughan said.

"Am I so old school to suggest that by playing a game of pink-ball cricket to prepare yourselves to play a pink-ball game is professionalism?

"There will be four or five players that, if they don't play that game, they will arrive at The Gabba to play a pink-ball game for the first time in their career, that can't be right."

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Over in Australia, the newspapers are beginning to react to Usman Khawaja being omitted from the home squad for Thursday's second Ashes Test in Brisbane.

The 38-year-old struggled with back spasms during the first Test in Perth and was unable to open, scoring two runs at number four in the first innings and not batting in the second.

With Khawaja ruled out, batter Josh Inglis and all-rounder Beau Webster are set to battle it out for a place in the XI, with Travis Head at the top of the order after he scored a century as a stand-in opener last time out.

The West Australian are excited about that move, external, telling us to "get ready to ride the Travis Head wave" and touting the South Australian as the successor to the attacking opener David Warner, who retired from Test cricket in January 2024.

In The Age, external, they note there has been no guarantee of a way back for Khawaja, who has played 85 Tests for Australia since making his debut in 2011.

Meanwhile, in The Australian, external, they make the case for the injury offering Khawaja the chance to retire with dignity and bid farewell to the Australian crowds at The Gabba.

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BBC Test Match Special commentator Henry Moeran has been speaking to some former England players about their experience of playing in Brisbane, known as 'The Gabbatoir' by locals because of how difficult it is for touring teams to win there.

The second Test of the current series begins in the Queensland capital on Thursday at 04:00 GMT.

Three-time Ashes winner Steven Finn felt the intimidation of the Gabba as a 21-year-old: "The first day of the Ashes series in 2010, when Andrew Strauss got out in the first over, the noise was all too much.

"I was watching in the viewing gallery for that first over, heard the noise, felt the rumbles of the stadium and then thought 'I'm disappearing back down to the dressing room to watch it on a TV screen' because it was so intense."

For so long the venue for the opening game of the Ashes, this year Brisbane and its passionate fans have had to wait for their chance to get stuck into the tourists, something they will relish.

"I remember on the journey to the ground, people were already there lining up on the streets. You have to wait in a holding pattern to be let into the stadium to drive underneath and then around the concourse," says Finn.

"You've got people coming up to the bus, banging on the windows, corkscrew hats, everything that stereotypically you would imagine is going to happen did happen to us while we were there."

Phil Tufnell played at the Gabba in an Ashes Test in 1994, and remembers the welcome all too well: "They get stuck into you on the boundary and they'll give you all sorts of stuff there, that is for sure.

"There used to be a hill where I used to field down at third man and fine leg and at about four o'clock the sky went black with beer cans.

"There was a can fight, which apparently they'd do every day in the old ground. It was pegging off everywhere!"

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Batter Usman Khawaja batted for the first time since the first Ashes Test against England during Australia's training session on Monday.

Khawaja, 38, struggled with back spasms in Perth and was unable to fulfill his role as opener in either innings. He batted at number four in the first innings and was dismissed for two.

Having done some light fielding on Sunday, Khawaja did some more running at the Gabba, his home ground, on Monday and faced throw downs for 30 minutes in the nets.

Australia train again on Tuesday under the lights in Brisbane.

Travis Head opened the batting in Khawaja's place in Australia's second innings of the first Test and his sensational 128 sent the hosts on their way to a two-day victory.

Head could continue in the role if Khawaja is not fit. Another option is batter Josh Inglis, who scored a century against England Lions last week.

Khawaja has also struggled for form in recent years. He averages 31.84 since the last Ashes series in 2023 and has not scored a fifty in any of his past 11 innings.

Khawaja said last week he "should be right" for the second Test, which begins on Thursday.

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Australia women's captain Alyssa Healy says her husband Mitchell Starc will be "licking his lips" at the prospect of using the pink ball in the second Ashes Test at Brisbane.

Starc is the most successful bowler in the history of day-night Tests, which use a pink ball for visibility purposes.

The 35-year-old seamer took career best figures of 7-58 in the first innings of the opening Test at Perth, but Healy believes her spouse will be hungrily looking forward to bowling under lights at The Gabba.

"He's prioritised Test cricket right throughout his career and it's sort of reaping the rewards of that at the moment," Healy told the For The Love of Cricket podcast.

"I think he's pretty chuffed with that, but then obviously to go to the Gabba with the pink ball, I think he'll be licking his lips a little bit to hopefully rip in."

Australia will again be without the experienced fast bowling duo of Josh Hazlewood and captain Pat Cummins in Queensland, but Healy feels that replacements Brendan Doggett and Scott Boland will also prosper with the pink ball.

"The Aussie attack with the pink ball is a little bit terrifying," Healy told former England seamer Stuart Broad.

"Obviously the Poms just bowl gas right, they bowl a lot of heat - you've got some really skill there, don't get me wrong - but all of a suddenly you bring Doggett and Boland almost back into the game.

"I know they tried to counter them, being quite aggressive to Boland, but Doggett's been really good with the pink ball over here in Australia when we've played it around Shield cricket. We know what Scotty Boland can do with a ball that moves a little bit more."

Healy also comes down on the side of the argument that says the pink ball moves more than its red counterpart.

"A red Kookaburra, you get a good one it swings a little bit, we saw one in Perth - didn't swing at all. And it goes soft pretty quickly, whereas a pink ball does go soft quicker but you can still get it to move a little bit more in different conditions.

"It produces a different contest, which I really enjoy as a fan. I still love watching the game, I just think it creates a little bit of unknown. I think it brings our attack into play a bit, which is awesome."