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But if you’re English, Joe Root was the rolled gold star of the opening day. Having closely followed Root’s rise and 13,551 runs since his Test debut in 2012, Barney Ronay was happy to rhapsodise about the Yorkie terrier’s rescue job in Brisbane.
Follow the story, the craft, the jags in the road, the pieces this thing takes out of you along the way. And at the end of it you have one of those great self-contained sporting moments, the sense of emotional connection through all the surrounding hoopla, the way Test cricket in particular can make you feel you know someone intimately just by watching them move and work and fail and come back.
If you’re a hometown supporter, Australia’s selectors were the villains of day one, leaving an “absolutely filthy” Nathan Lyon our of the side to play Gabba specialist Michael Neser, and Mitchell Starc was again the conquering hero.
Geoff Lemon paid fitting tribute to the big quick from Penrith who saved his side’s blushes (again) and whose sterling six-for swept him past the 414 dismissals of the great Wasim Akram to make Starc the most prolific left-arm quick of all.
In a series supposed to be defined by Australia’s fast-bowling Big Three, he has done the work as the sole member to make the starting line. With one English wicket left to fall and his tally on six for 46, he was on the brink of the remarkable feat of recording career-best figures for the fourth time in less than 12 months.
For those who came in late… here’s our blow-by-blow, over-by-over coverage of day one.
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Hello cricket fans! Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage for day two of the second Test between Australia and England at the Gabba for the 2025-26 Ashes.
This match is beautifully poised, with both combatants seizing momentum then letting it slide throughout a gripping opening day. England won the toss and chose to bat but it was Australia who drew first blood, Mitchell Starc working his magic with the rapid-fire dismissals of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope to have the visitors two wickets down for five runs.
Joe Root strode out in the fifth over with a serious salvage mission on his hands. His team were one-nil down in the series, back at Australia’s happiest hunting ground of the “Gabbatoir” and still raw from their drubbing in Perth. But at stumps, Root’s resilience had carved a new legend to lead his side to an improbable 325 for nine.
The 34-year-old Yorkshireman had also got the gorilla off his back at last with a maiden century in Australia to join the 39 others he’s amassed around the world across 159 Tests over 13 years.And with the help of Zak Crawley (76 from 93) and Jofra Archer (a dervish 32 from 26 late in the day), Root had hauled his team into ascendancy with an unbeaten 135 from 202.
Despite selectors bizarrely benching Nathan Lyon to play a fifth seamer in Michael Neser, Australia entered the final hour of play with their tails up. Starc had another six-for, having seen off Duckett, Pope, Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse for ducks, and Josh Inglis had embarrassed Ben Stokes with a brilliant run-out.
But at 264-9, England sucker-punched them, Root and Archer swinging the axe, seeking fast runs or a late-evening lash at the Australian top-order. They got the former, piling on a fifty-run partnership that will continue this morning to salt the wound of Lyon’s non-selection and his largely-ineffectual substitutions.
So settle in and buckle up. Play begins at 2pm AEST in Brisbane, 3pm AEDT, 4am GMT.
