Australia strengthened their grip on the third Ashes Test by removing local heroes Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow cheaply as they reduced England to 87-5 on Friday’s second day at Headingley.
England resumed on 68-3 in reply to Australia’s first-innings 263, a deficit of 195 runs.
Root was 19 not out and Bairstow on one, with the pair receiving a rousing reception as they walked out to bat on their Yorkshire home ground.
At 2-0 down with three to play, England need to win to keep the series alive.
A sunny morning offered the prospect of good batting conditions, but to just the second ball of the day Root fell for his overnight score when the star batsman tentatively edged a delivery from Australia captain Pat Cummins to David Warner at first slip.
Root’s exit brought in England captain Ben Stokes, fresh from his stunning 155 in Australia’s 43-run win in the second Test at Lord’s last week where the controversial stumping of Bairstow provoked a furious row that drew comments from both the British and Australian prime ministers.
There was hope among the crowd that Stokes might repeat his Headingley Ashes heroics of 2019, when the all-rounder’s astounding unbeaten hundred guided England to a remarkable one-wicket win.
But Stokes could only watch as Bairstow flat-footedly drove at a ball angled across from left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc, with Steve Smith holding a sharp catch in front of his face at second slip.
The latest example of Australia’s superior fielding left England in dire straits at 87-5.
Stokes had made just 10 when given not out to paceman Scott Boland following an appeal for lbw despite an Australia review.
World Test champions Australia, bidding for their first Ashes series win in England in 22 years, had been indebted Thursday to Mitchell Marsh.
The all-rounder marked his first Test since 2019 with a run-a-ball 118 in an innings where the next highest score was Travis Head’s 39.
Marsh, however, was dropped on 12 when Root floored a regulation slip catch.
Mark Wood took an impressive 5-34 in his first match of the series, with the fast bowler managing an average speed of over 90 mph.
