The absence of Australia’s run-making rock coupled with the pink ball’s enduring mysteries has left the Ashes leaders still ruminating on their best combination for the Gabba’s day-night Test less than 24 hours before it is due to begin.
The home side, up 1-0 in the NRMA Insurance series, have not shut down the prospect of Pat Cummins making a shock return in Brisbane even as his captaincy fill-in Steve Smith initially let out a short giggle when asked about it on match eve.
Cummins was not named in Australia’s squad for this Test nor did his team take the opportunity to add him to it when the injured Usman Khawaja was excused from duties this week. But the possibility of his earlier-then-anticipated return from a back injury was one of several selection questions left unanswered on match eve.
Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
Australia’s brains trust – coach Andrew McDonald, selector George Bailey along with Cummins and Smith – held an extensive pitch-side meeting on Wednesday afternoon not long after it had been given its final mow.
But finding a replacement for Khawaja, who has not missed a Test since his recall during the 2021-22 Ashes and has been Australia’s leading run scorer in the four years since, as well as finalising a bowling attack have not proved straightforward.
McDonald and co’s repeated poking of the second-Test surface, as if a mythical beast might leap out from under it if the right spot was prodded, suggested they still did not have a good feel for the 22 yards of turf.
Australia’s team will not be announced until the toss on Thursday afternoon. Josh Inglis shapes as Khawaja’s likely replacement, with Travis Head to either share the opening role with him, or take it outright after his match-winning ton in Perth.
Inglis is not a regular opener but hit a ton after being shoehorned in to bat there in a tour game against England Lions last month.
Smith also did not rule out the possibility of Australia leaving out spinner Nathan Lyon, as they did in their most recent floodlit Test in Jamaica earlier this year. That could allow them to either deepen their batting with allrounder Beau Webster or pull a shock move by bringing Cummins back in.
The fact it was Smith, and not Cummins, leading repeated inspections of the Gabba pitch before the leaders’ main tête-à-tête suggested the former was preparing to be the man in charge this week.
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“A whole heap of things are on the table … I can’t give you a great deal right now, I apologise,” Smith told reporters before his team held an optional training session. He confirmed Cummins would be in charge if he played.
After laughing at the first mention of a potential Cummins return during his pre-match press conference, Smith then pointed out the difference between the intensity required in the practice nets versus the intensity of an Ashes contest.
Cummins, who has been managing a lumbar bone injury that was discovered before it had developed into a full-blown stress fracture, has now been back bowling for five weeks.
The 32-year-old looks to be closing in on full fitness during training, sending down multiple high-pace spells as well as batting extensively against the rose-tinged Kookaburra this week.
“He looks pretty good to me, the way he’s bowled in the nets. Obviously, games are a different intensity for sure, but he’s tracking really nicely. He knows his body well and we’ll wait and see,” Smith said of Cummins.
Bringing in Cummins for Lyon, instead of a seamer, would potentially negate the need for him to bowl a high volume of overs given it leaves his side with five pace options.
While Smith was non-committal on all things selection, he has outlined that he will don ‘eye black’ tape under his eyes after consulting Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the former West Indies batter who was renowned for wearing them.
The Guyanese left-hander pointed out Smith had not applied them correctly at training this week.
“I actually messaged Shivnarine Chanderpaul and asked him what his thoughts were, whether he wore the chalk or the strips,” said Smith.
“He said the strips, and he thinks it blocks out 65 per cent of the glare. He also said, ‘I’ve seen photos – and you’re wearing them the wrong way’. So yesterday, I put them on the right way.
“I agree with him. I think it certainly stops the glare. Yeah, I’ll be wearing them (in the Test).”
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Smith was also firm in putting forward that his view on batting orders differed to one held by Cummins and Head, who have both labelled them “overrated”.
McDonald has floated the idea of a hybrid order and the selection of Inglis could facilitate that, which Smith did concede could be suited to day-night cricket.
“Pink ball, anything’s possible,” he said. “We’ve been pretty open in the past around maybe having two nightwatchmen and things like that. It’s a completely different game. You’ve got to play what’s in front of you at any given stage.
“But I’m not sure I completely agree with those two (Cummins and Head) on batting orders being overrated. It’s nice to be in a similar role and get used to that role over and over again.
“It can change in games, and maybe that’s the way forward. But having certain spots for one innings and other spots for a second innings, I’m not sure.
“It’s nice to have a single role and try to get used to that as much as possible.”
It is believed some in the Australian camp were earlier this week comparing this Gabba pitch to the character of the one used for 2016’s first day-night Test at this venue.
In that match, Pakistan went close to pulling off a miracle fourth-innings run chase as the home side’s bowlers struggled to make inroads with a lifeless pink ball.
Gabba curator Dave Sandurski has insisted the surface had been prepared the same way as the one produced for West Indies’ surprise win over Australia for a day-night Test in January 2024, while also confirming his aim to prepare a similar pitch to the one Queensland won inside three days on against Victoria in the Sheffield last month.
What has also surely been discussed by the Aussies is the possibility of more rapid-fire Tests like the one that finished inside two days in Perth.
Lyon bowled only two overs for the match there. He has played in all of Australia’s pink-ball Tests at home, only missing the one played abroad in the Caribbean this year, but his record at the Gabba is not as formidable as his one at Adelaide Oval under lights.
“We’ll look at the surface and we’ll sum things up from there,” Smith said of Lyon. “Here’s a place where Nathan’s done really well in the past. He’s a quality bowler but we’ll weigh up the options and see how we go.”
2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes
First Test: Australia won by eight wickets
Second Test: December 4-8, The Gabba, Brisbane (D/N), 3pm AEDT
Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT
Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT
Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT
Australia squad (second Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood
