12:09 PM BST
The rain has relented at Headingley
But it is still very damp. Lunch will be taken early and end at 1.10pm but they won’t be able to take the field until 90 minutes after it stops.
Sky is currently showing Butcher’s Test, the 2001 victory at Headingley. Fond memories indeed.
Butcher carries the day for England.
11:59 AM BST
On Ollie Robinson
He is expected to bowl today. He was forced off during the Hobart Test in 2021-22 with a similar problem, having taken two for 24 off eight overs, including the wickets of David Warner and Steve Smith, the latter for a duck.
He did bowl in the second innings, starting very gingerly at 73mph but he gradually speeded up and got through his work, getting through 11 overs for 23 runs and no wickets as Mark Wood ran riot with six for 37. We’ll settle for that today …
11:39 AM BST
Will Macpherson reports from Headingley
There’s a gentle clear-up underway, as it’s not currently raining.
11:33 AM BST
Early lunch will be taken at 12.30
The groundstaff report that it will take 90 minutes to mop up as soon as it stops raining. It isn’t raining very hard at the moment but it’s still pretty moist, the mizzle.
11:22 AM BST
Will Macpherson reports on Barnetgate
There is really nothing like the Ashes. The Australian camp have quite aggressively denied that Alex Carey owes a Leeds barber £30, as claimed by Sir Alastair Cook on Test Match Special. Apparently he has not had his haircut since before the World Test Championship final.
Here’s the TMS ‘anecdote’
And the ‘robust’ response:
11:10 AM BST
Right as rain? Not our Will
Well, I was the one member of Telegraph Sport’s five-pronged cricket attack who chose to take on the 50-minute walk to the ground and, as a result, I will be spending the next few hours drying out. After a bright start, there’s been considerable rain, and a bit of thunder and lightning. No play for a few hours, sadly.
11:08 AM BST
Seeing the Test is in Yorkshire …
And it’s chucking it down, here’s the Great Rainmaker himself, alongside Sir Geoffrey, Sir Michael and our own Nick Hoult on a return trip to Shaw Lane, 60 years on:
11:02 AM BST
No Northern Ashes Tests in 2027
Glad to see Trent Bridge back on the calendar in 2027, alongside Edgbaston, Lord’s, the Oval and a debut for the Ageas Bowl. But no Tests at Headingley or Old Trafford, like in 2015, can’t be right. Very vanilla. Given ‘fortress Edgbaston’ has fallen in 2019 and 2023, should that be sacrosanct. Two London Tests by virtue of tradition and the size of the grounds? The great thing about going to Old Trafford is all the folk from North Wales, Cheshire and the Lakes who go and the same for Headingley with people from Yorkshire, Scotland and the North-East.
10:56 AM BST
JL on his changed perspective
Australian coach Andrew McDonald said overnight “I’d love to be a spectator and not a coach, because I’d be able to appreciate it a little bit more.
“It’s got everyone on the edge of their seats.”
Having walked in his shoes I understand what he’s saying. I can’t remember being more intrigued about a day’s cricket. Sitting here in Perth on a cold winter’s night I am pumped about today.
When you’re a coach or player the tension is tangible. As a spectator you can sit back and watch without the stress. We can still get nervous and uptight but it’s nothing like tension you feel when you’re in the rooms.
The arm wrestle continues and it’s been good to see both teams and different individuals adapt their games to the extreme pressure of Ashes cricket.
10:54 AM BST
Still raining
Athers on the pain of bunnydom is worth your while as we wait:
10:38 AM BST
Another shower passing through now, sadly
Siling it down over the ground.
10:22 AM BST
Live pictures from Sky
Show a shower passing through but the tail-end still above the ground. Umbrellas are up and the covers are glistening with moisture.
10:17 AM BST
England believe – our two wise men
10:14 AM BST
Read all about it
Explore cricket’s greatest rivalry through archived Telegraph articles in our Ashes custom gift book – the perfect present for all cricket lovers.
10:13 AM BST
Leeds scenes
It’s bright overhead but the covers were still on in Leeds this morning at 10.05am.
10:09 AM BST
Rain due
Brolly weather in the West Riding this morning.
09:57 AM BST
Having a bet on the third Test?
Find the best Ashes free bets to use throughout the five days.
09:55 AM BST
Boycott’s Briefing: England have an opportunity, but chasing a small total could be tough
09:50 AM BST
Preview: Rally round the captain
Before we discuss the state of play, it is worth emphasising that the weather forecast for Leeds today is poor. Rain is expected throughout the morning and heavier bursts are due to return in the late afternoon and early evening. There is a decent prospect so far of intermittent play through the afternoon but it is such a shame that it is likely to be bitty given Saturday at Headingley is usually a feast day for cricket fans from the Broad Acres, Durham and Northumberland.
A shame, too, as the Test is set up perfectly for yet another Ashes nipper between two ostensibly well-matched sides … apart from their catching prowess. Yesterday, in the field, after Mark Wood breathed life into a moribund England response by blasting boundaries before another Stokesian masterclass, a wounded bowling attack rallied round their captain and clawed them back into the game and the series. By dismissing Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labsuchagne and Steve Smith with Australia’s lead still fairly modest, England have opened the door. If their bowlers can eke out Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh cheaply and unleash Wood on the rest, they will contain the lead to gettable proportions, by which I mean beneath 260. They are capable of chasing more – they did it last year multiple times – but their form and the excellence of Pat Cummins should make everyone cautious.
To have any hope of turning promise into achievement and keep the Ashes live when it crosses the Pennines, a batsman is going to have to stand up. Joe Root, we’re looking at you here. Since tweaking the nose of the cricketing gods with that declaration when in imperious nick at Edgbaston, he has been out on the charge, hooking and twice when trying to open the face to balls that climbed on him. There’s the not inconsiderable matter of dropping Marsh on 12 before he went on to make 188, too. It’s a team game, of course. But Root knows better than anyone that if he can deliver, the Test and the series can be saved.
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