Jofra Archer has been ruled out of England’s final two Tests in Australia with a side strain as their desperate Ashes tour goes from bad to worse. Archer, who took six wickets in Australia’s 82-run win in Adelaide, will be replaced by Gus Atkinson for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, with Jacob Bethell coming in for Ollie Pope at No. 3 in England’s other change.
Archer made his Test comeback in July after more than four years away from the format due to elbow and back injuries. He has been arguably England’s player of the series in Australia, taking nine wickets and scoring useful lower-order runs, and was praised by his captain Ben Stokes on Tuesday for his “exceptional” efforts with the ball.
He was sent for a scan in Melbourne on Tuesday after a limited workload in the second innings of the Adelaide Test, and will return to the UK next week to be assessed. At this stage, England are confident that Archer will be available for the T20 World Cup in February, and do not plan to call up a replacement for the final Test with Matthew Potts and Matthew Fisher both available.
Atkinson returns to the side and is set to share the new ball with Brydon Carse, while Shoaib Bashir has been overlooked for the fourth consecutive Test despite Stokes’s insistence that he remains England’s No. 1 spinner. Will Jacks keeps his place at No. 8 as a spin-bowling allrounder, while Josh Tongue is also retained after taking five wickets in Adelaide.
Pope is yet to score a half-century against Australia
across 16 innings and has been dropped for the second consecutive Ashes tour. He captained England at the end of their home series against India earlier this year in Stokes’ absence but was replaced as vice-captain before this series and has managed just 125 runs in his six innings, at an average of 20.83.
Bethell, his replacement, made his Test debut in New Zealand last year and will win his fifth cap on Boxing Day. He only played once for Warwickshire in the County Championship last summer and is yet to score a first-class century, but has become a regular in England’s white-ball teams and captained them in their T20I series against Ireland in September.
Pope has been England’s first-choice No. 3 throughout Stokes’ tenure as captain and has played 41 of their last 44 Tests, missing three through injury. But his place has been under significant pressure since Bethell scored three half-centuries against New Zealand last December, batting at No. 3 with Pope in the middle order and keeping wicket in Jamie Smith’s absence.
He kept his place for the India series by scoring 171 against Zimbabwe in June, and his 108 in the first innings at Headingley looked like the start of a new chapter in his Test career. But it proved a false dawn: he managed a single half-century in his next 14 innings, and England have finally lost patience with his skittish approach and consistent struggles against high-quality opposition.
Ben Duckett, meanwhile, has been retained despite his failure to reach 30 in his first innings of the Ashes series and an ECB investigation into his conduct after a video which appeared to show him drunk and unsure how to return to his hotel went viral on social media. Stokes said that Duckett has his “complete support”.
Australia are set to make at least three changes, with Pat Cummins (back rehabilitation) and Nathan Lyon (torn hamstring) both missing out and Steven Smith set to captain the side as he returns from illness.
England XI for 4th Test vs Australia
1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Will Jacks, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Josh Tongue.
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