Strauss relaxes curfew as Test flops take break
ENGLAND reacted to a second crushing Ashes defeat by relaxing curfews and giving all but one of the beaten second Test team a weekend off while they play a practice game in Perth. Joe Root’s side were allowed to stay out later than midnight in Adelaide on Wednesday after their 120-run defeat, with England now deciding to ease rules brought in after Jonny Bairstow was accused of ‘head-butting’ Australia’s Cameron Bancroft — an accusation he denies in today’s
Sportsmail — in an incident that happened at the start of England’s tour but did not come to light until he was sledged in Brisbane. And a spokesman confirmed there will be more nights when the players will be given permission to burn the midnight oil. Senior players had been unhappy they were being penalised here even though England had cleared Bairstow of doing anything wrong. So Andrew Strauss, enduring his most difficult time as team director, did something of a U-turn. The sympathetic attitude extends to the pitch where England will field a second-string team against a Cricket Australia XI tomorrow. Moeen Ali, after a terrible start to the tour, will play and captain an England side for the first time as he tries to get more bowling under his belt. Moeen has been struggling after a side strain kept him out of the first two warm-up games and he then cut the spinning finger on his right hand so badly in the first Test in Brisbane it has hindered him ever since. England will field those in the Test squad who were not involved in Adelaide — Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Mason Crane, Tom Curran and Ben Foakes — and will make up the rest of the 12-man squad with Lions players. That will give opportunities to — among others — Mark Wood, Keaton Jennings, Ben Duckett and Liam Livingstone. But England coach Trevor Bayliss has already suggested he will name an unchanged team for the third Test. ENGLAND (v Cricket Australia XI in Perth tomorrow and Sunday): Moeen (captain), Ball, Ballance, Crane, Curran, Duckett, Foakes (wkt), Jennings, Lawrence, Leach, Livingstone, Wood.