Summary

  • Vince 83 - brilliantly run out by Lyon

  • Stoneman 53 - bowled by Cummins

  • Root 15 - lbw on review to Cummins

  • England slip from 127-1 to 163-4

  • Play to start at 23:30 GMT on Thursday

  1. Postpublished at 23:23 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Stephan Shemilt
    BBC Sport at the Gabba

    This is the view from the famous Vulture Street End, just underneath the TMS box. If you look at the top right, you'll see the flags that signify where the Barmy Army are gathering.

    Gabba commentary box
  2. Postpublished at 23:22 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Phil Tufnell
    Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

    Joe RootImage source, PA

    This England team are quite good at not getting drawn into all the trash talk before the series - they're a quiet, confident mob really.

    Of course, underneath they will be bubbling away. You've just got to have a quiet first half hour and let the dressing room settle - if you're two or three down, it all starts blowing up.

  3. get involved

    Get Involvedpublished at 23:20 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    #bbccricket

    Charlie Timms: Normally, and reasonably, I hate waking up at 6am before an hour's drive to Swindon for work but for the next couple of months it's going to be a doddle.

    Lewis Starks: No Stokes... Nervous! Then I saw the current Australian squad... Nervous for them! I was born an optimist for a reason... The reason being a 3-1 Ashes victory to England.

  4. Postpublished at 23:17 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    A lovely moment for Cameron Bancroft there - he's just received his Baggy Green from Geoff Marsh, who has been his mentor at Western Australia.

    Bancroft's cheeks have gone bright red as he's congratulated by his team-mates. What a stage to make your Test debut on.

  5. Postpublished at 23:14 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Glenn McGrath
    Ex-Australia pace bowler on BBC Test Match Special

    When Mitchell Starc is at top pace and swinging the new ball then he is probably the best bowler in world cricket at the moment.

  6. 'Australia sides target the captain'published at 23:12 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    BBC Radio Leeds

    Former Australia bowler and Sussex coach Jason Gillespie: "Joe is relatively new to the job [of being captain] but that might actually work in his favour. What I mean by that is he has now pre-conceived ideas.

    “Australian sides do look to target opposition captains and put them under a lot of pressure in the belief that if the captain is low in form and confidence, it will filter down through the rest of his troops.

    "Australia will look to exploit that, but Joe is a quality player and there’s a reason why he’s performed so well at Test level so far.”

    .Image source, Getty Images
  7. Postpublished at 23:09 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Stephan Shemilt
    BBC Sport at the Gabba

    It's starting to look very cloudy. There is more white/grey than blue overhead. The clouds don't look menacing, but rain arrives quicker than a hiccup in these parts. Coolish, muggy. Almost English...

  8. The Land of Nod - read by Stephen Frypublished at 23:07 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    If this doesn't get you in the mood, then nothing will...

    Media caption,

    Stephen Fry reads an Ashes-inspired version of The Land of Nod, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

  9. 'Everyone is glued to the toss'published at 23:05 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Joe RootImage source, Getty Images

    Matt Prior was at BBC Sport HQ earlier today, and we asked him what it's like to await news of the toss...

    "Everyone is watching the toss," said Prior. "I always used to watch live because there was a delay on the telly, so I wanted to know straight away.

    "We would then warm up as a team, do any final drills to get ready, then into the dressing room.

    "There have been collective groans when we have lost the toss.

    "I remember Adelaide in 2010 – an absolutely belting wicket. It just looked incredible and it was like ‘We have to win this toss’. I was sat in the dressing room with the bowlers, the toss went up and we lost and we were batting. It was a roasting hot day as well. 'Ohhhh no, here we go...'"

    Matt Prior was helping to launch Chance to Shine charity’s free digital cricket resource for primary school teachers available here., external

  10. TMS on airpublished at 23:03 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

    It's definitely Ashes time - Test Match Special is on air!

    You can listen using the player at the top of the page.

  11. The Gabbatoirpublished at 23:02 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    We're less than 30 minutes away from the toss out in the middle at the Gabba.

    It's a ground that hasn't been kind to Brits in the past - for example the first, and only, time I went there, I fell down the stairs coming out of the stadium.

    England's record at the ground is pretty miserable.

    Of the 20 Tests they have played there, the tourists have won four, and that last victory came in 1986.

    They have lost two of their past four Tests on the ground by over 300 runs, and they only managed to escape with a draw in 2010-11 after Cook and Trott batted for days, and Australia forgot how to bowl.

    .Image source, Getty Images
  12. 'He made me feel inadequate'published at 22:59 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    At least England won't have to face this fella today...

    Speaking on his weekly podcast with Robbie Savage and Matthew Syed, Andrew Flintoff says Glenn McGrath made him feel distinctly ordinary on a cricket field. Who's the bowler England fear most in this series? Starc, Hazlewood or Cummins? Or, perhaps, Nathan Lyon?!

    McGrath, by the way, is part of TMS' commentary team throughout the series. He's actually a nice bloke, you know!

  13. Postpublished at 22:56 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Stephan Shemilt
    BBC Sport at the Gabba

    In the nets with Jonny Bairstow. Decent crowd watching. "Poms are everywhere," says one Aussie.

    Jonny Bairstow
  14. Postpublished at 22:52 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    And in further injury watch news, David Warner is a-okay.

  15. get involved

    Get Involvedpublished at 22:50 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    #bbccricket

    Phil Dean: Australia very bullish and confident going into the Ashes, but let's not forget in the last 12 months this team lost Test series at home to SA, away in India and drew 1-1 in Bangladesh. Can't see a 5-0 happening this time.

  16. Postpublished at 22:47 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Mitch Starc is properly good at what he does.

    He took two hat-tricks in the same Sheffield Shield game at the start of this month for New South Wales against Tasmania.

    In his first four-day game since returning from a foot injury, Starc took 8-73 in the second innings to finish with 10 wickets as NSW thrashed South Australia.

    Starc's previously said he wants to play the Mitchell Johnson role in this series, and he's already got the toe-crushing yorkers down to a tee.

    He's also trying to emulate Johnson's facial hair from that 2013-14 series. Mixed reviews on that front...

    .Image source, Getty Images
  17. Postpublished at 22:46 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Stephan Shemilt
    BBC Sport at the Gabba

    Shaun Marsh, he of the stiff back, is in the nets. He looks fine. Glenn Maxwell, called up as cover, is bowling. He doesn't look like a man who is playing.

  18. Postpublished at 22:45 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Tim Paine made his Test debut against Pakistan in 2010, deputising for Brad Haddin, and he looked a solid bet for the future.

    However, after breaking his finger in a charity match - an injury that eventually required five operations - his international and domestic experiened have been limited.

    Paine hasn't made a first-class hundred since 2006. When he was recalled, he had kept wicket in three Sheffield Shield games in the past two years.

    In fact, he was dropped by Tasmania a year ago, and has spent much of 2017 standing at first slip, with Test keeper Matt Wade taking the gloves.

    Finally: Australian coach Darren Lehmann has a more recent Shield century (2007-08) than Tim Paine (2006-07).

    .Image source, Getty Images
  19. get involved

    Get Involvedpublished at 22:41 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Text us on 81111

    In 2010 I stayed up and watched Strauss fall third ball but we did alright in the end. Tonight I will go to bed, wake up to use the toilet, check my phone and quietly cry into my pillow before falling back to sleep. Very bad feeling. Really bad.

    Neil, Durham

  20. The elder Marsh brotherpublished at 22:39 Greenwich Mean Time 22 November 2017

    Shaun Marsh has played in one Ashes Test, and it was that one at Trent Bridge two years ago, where he made a four-ball duck.

    The elder Marsh brother hasn't scored a Test ton since August 2016 - although in fairness, he's only played five matches in that period - and averaged 18.87 in his last series against India.

    He averaged 2.83 in a series at home against India in 2011-12 - that's a series where every Australia batsman scored runs for fun.

    And he's been recalled this time around after scoring 236 runs in six Shield innings, with no century and a top score of 91.

    .Image source, PA