Ashes series in delicate stage at 2-1 as Aus, Eng get ready for 4th test

The men's Ashes 2023 in England has already become a series to remember for 3 riveting test matches and two more waiting to be played . With England's flamboyant bazball system getting all the  focus , the more steadfast Aussies quietly went about their business , played test cricket the traditional way and edged out England in the first two tests that went right down to the bitter end . Australia led by Pat Cummins beat England by 2 wickets at Egbaston and by 43 runs at Lords . However , England fought back hard and finally managed to extract a thrilling 3 wicket win in a complicated chase to keep the series alive only just by 2-1 .

Going back briefly to the 3 test matches . At Egbaston on a sunny morning , Ben Stokes won the toss and England batted . Having hit a 4 off the very first ball of the series Zak Crawley (61) took England to a flying start while later on Joe Root (118*) and Jonny Bairstow (78) took on the Aussie bowling in belligerent style but with score at 393/8 , Stokes made a surprise declaration to  put Australia in before close . Though the Aussie openers survived that evening,  wickets started tumbling in the first session of day 2 before Usman Khawaja played a resolute and marathon knock of 141 with good support from Head (50), Green (38), Carey (66) and Cummins (38) as Australia crawled to 386 .

In the 2nd innings of the hosts,  Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon hit back with 4 wickets each as England lost early wickets before 40s from Root, Brook and Stokes and some lower order runs took England to 273 . With 282 to win, Australia was again stabilised by another resolute Khawaja (65) show who batted all the 5 days in the test.  Others scored runs around him but none could get big scores as Australia kept losing wickets as they were progressing to a defeat . However skipper Pat Cummins did a star turn with the bat with a stellar 44 notout and well supported by a stubborn Nathan Lyon ( 16*) as Australia scraped home by 2 wickets in an epic finish . Stuart Broad 's 6 wickets in the match could not save England the blushes .

The 2nd test at Lords saw England winning the toss and fielding in cloudy conditions but Australia batted  in resolute fashion in  challenging conditions with a stubborn 110 from Steve Smith and belligerent 77 off 73 balls from Travis Head . At the top David Warner (66) buried his ghosts of 2019  while Labuschagne (47) looked solid as Australia piled on 416 .  England however replied very strongly with Crawley (48) , Duckett (98) and Pope(42) as they reached 188/1 at one stage but later collapsed to 325 all out giving Australia a 91 run advantage.  Australia scored 279 in second innings with yet another Khawaja (77) special as Broad took 4 wickets .Needing a formidable  371 to win , England were rattled by quality fast bowling from Cummins and Starc and were struggling at 45/4 before Duckett and Stokes had a magnificent 132 run stand till Ducket (83) was out . England slumped to 193/6 with that controversial Bairstow run out . However Ben Stokes launched a fierce assault as he dismantled the Aussie bowling with a blistering 155 studded with 9 fours and 9 sixes to raise England's hopes miraculously before Hazlewood got his prize wicket which finally deflated England as they declined to 327 allout to lose by 43 runs.  

With 0-2 down , Stokes won his 3rd toss at Headingly and put Australia in . After being in trouble at 85/4  Australia was rescued by a belligerent 118 by Mitch Marsh who replaced an injured Green for this game . However from 240/4 , Australia slumped to 263 allout due to blistering fast bowling by Mark Wood who ripped through the lower order with 5/34 . England however batted poorly and were 199/9. However  Stokes played another blistering knock of 80 with support from Wood (24) and Moeen (21) to take England to 237 as Cummins took 6/91. With a token 26 run lead , Australia lost wickets regularly though Khawaja (43) and Labuschagne (33) looked solid but it was a blistering 77 from Travis Head that took Australia to 224 from 170/8 as Broad and Woakes took 3 wickets each . With 251 to win , England had a roller coaster chase as wickets fell whenever they looked in control . Crawley (44) played a vital knock but it was the Harry Brook(75) heroics followed by blistering hits from Woakes (32*) and Wood (16*) that took England home with the series (2-1) in balance . 

Indeed this has been a riveting series  with so far fine performances from Khawaja, Head, Smith , Cummins, Starc, Carey and Marsh from Australia side and from Duckett, Stokes, Wood, Woakes, Broad and Root from England side .

Looking back at certain important moments of the series this far , it has to be said that Australia is leading despite having the worse of the conditions.  They lost all 3 tosses , batted in more challenging conditions than England and lost their best spinner early in the England first innings of the Lords test .  That brave Ben Stokes declaration on the first day of the series would still  haunt him as with Root batting beautifully they could have still managed to reach close to 440-450 that would have made Australia's task to win on day 5 much more difficult. Stokes could have sealed the first test but instead chose to have a more exciting test match . He did have one but at England 's expense . That declaration might still haunt him at the end of the series if Australia retain the Ashes . Also England need to find a way to play both Wood and Tongue to add even more venom to their bowling on these flat decks . 

Australia needs to get more runs out of their lower order which they are not getting in this series  . That batting failure at Leeds on day one  has brought England back in the series . Also Warner needs to work out Broad ironically after an encouraging start to the series . In bowling they need to get more out of 3rd and 4th seamer. 

Now the 4th test is to be played at Manchester . Australia will look to win this to retain the Ashes and win their first series in England since 2001 while England needs a win to keep the Ashes alive . 

As for England in the 4th test ,  they are likely to continue their bazball approach in batting and probably try to play the same bowling attack as at Leeds except that Tongue may come in for Robinson who has not been at his best in this series. Also there may not be a way back for Jimmy Anderson who has been subdued in this series .

Australia definitely will miss Nathan Lyon after his Lords injury . They may again give a go to Warner who is again struggling to Broad and may retain Marsh after his special 100 at Leeds . It may be possible that they bring back Green instead of Todd Murphy and make Travis Head bowl many overs of spin if needed . Hazlewood is almost certain to replace Boland .

With 3 tests gone and two to play all eyes are now on Manchester  .