England's players are trudging back on the field at the SCG.

The new ball is not far off for England. I'm clinging onto the hope James Anderson might produce one of those mesmerising spells.

Mark Stringer: What on earth does Jack Leach actually offer? Can’t bat, goes for way too many runs, doesn’t create pressure. We desperately need an all round spinner/batsmen. Just not good enough.

Not a lot of love for Jack Leach at the moment. He's in an tricky position of trying to slow the run rate, but singled out for not offering enough of a wicket-taking threat while England's seamers struggle for a breakthrough.

Polemikos: A bald guy with glasses bowling left-arm around the wicket at one end, and your biggest personality trying to bowl short and fast, but failing and straining himself, at the other.

Is this the Ashes or is it a Sunday afternoon club match?

Here's how Steve Smith brought up that fifty shortly before the lunch interval.

Andy Zaltzman
BBC Test Match Special statistician

Since making his first Test century against England at The Oval, in first-innings Smith has scored more than 2100 runs in 24 innings at an average of 100.04 with nine hundreds and six half-centuries.

Incoming: some super Steve Smith statistics.

A leave so exaggerated and flamboyant you'd think Steve Smith was auditioning for the part of himself in 'Steve Smith - The Musical'

Steady now, Nic. Although it has been an Ashes series to sap the life out of you.

Nic Wirtz: Hope I'm wrong but I suspect the only way Timothy Abraham is injecting any positivity into England supporters is if it's quite possibly illegal.

And to rub salt in the wound...is this the last we'll see of Ben Stokes the bowler in this series?

Image source, Getty Images

Thanks Amy. That was a pretty grueling session for England overall wasn't it?

The pitch is flat, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja are a pair of limpets in for the long haul, while England's bowlers look a little short on ideas.

We could be in for a long old day.

That was all a bit grim.

I'm off for a bit. Timothy Abraham will try and inject some positivity in us all until tea.

And England will have this to ponder over lunch.

Dawid Malan gets away with a horrendous full toss to Usman Khawaja and that, friends, is lunch.

Geoff Lemon
Australian journalist on Test Match Special

Image source, Getty Images

You sense he might raise his bat to the crowd a couple more times in this innings alone.

50 for Smithpublished at 01:31 Greenwich Mean Time 6 January 2022

01:31 GMT 6 January 2022

The simplest of back foot punches, and Steve Smith raises his bat as he notches his 33rd Test half-century.

That has felt inevitable since he walked out this morning.

Image source, Getty Images

John Main: England are masters of the self-inflicted wounds.

Usman Khawaja plays an elegant back cut that draws applause from his home crowd.

I think we'll squeeze in one final over before lunch.