A panel of cricket experts who often travel and work on the Australian cricket series frequently resort to light-hearted teasing among themselves. In a similar spirit, the expert commentary panel consisting of former cricket players Brett Lee, Michael Vaughan, and Kerry O’Keeffe started joking about the potential best team for The Ashes 2025 during the post-stumps discussion on Day 4 of the third Test in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT 2024-25).
Significantly, Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, surprised everyone by revealing his ideal combined Ashes 2025 playing XI during the Brisbane Test post-show by contrasting the two teams’ recent series performances. Since 1882, England and Australia have played a competitive bilateral series known as the Ashes every year.
Although Vaughan appeared content with his playing XI after picking his squad, the famous pundit and former Australia player Kerry O’Keeffe, often known as “Skull,” mercilessly ridiculed him for his strange choice and reasoning behind it. The Australian was taken aback that Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell were chosen above veterans Travis Head and Steve Smith.
By reminding Michael Vaughan that the majority of the English team’s players were not native to the British nation, Kerry O’Keeffe poked fun of him. Additionally, he ridiculed him for favouring Brook over Head, claiming that Head scored a significant century against their nearby nation while Brook struggled to bat against New Zealand.
“The third player is Barbados’ Jacob Bethell. What’s going on? I mean, I saw a pin of Jacob Bethell, my favourite player, Viv Richards, and Bob Marley, who I’d most like to meet. He’s batting three for England.
In his recent form, Harry lost to the pie-chuckers, the New Zealanders, 0–1, while Travis received 151. This is an absurd selection, O’ Keeffe continued.
In the meantime, Harry Brook had an outstanding series against New Zealand, finishing as England’s top scorer with 350 runs at an average of 70.
Watch the viral video of Kerry O’Keeffe aka Skull roasting Vaughan here:
Skull absolutely roasted Michael Vaughan for his combined XI for next year’s Ashes series. 😂 pic.twitter.com/SQTTCapv1N
— Herald Sun Sport (@heraldsunsport) December 17, 2024
Head’s century and the pacers’ excellent bowling allow Jadeja, Bumrah, and Akash to save India.
Speaking of the Australia-India Test match in Brisbane, Travis Head had previously tormented the Indian bowling unit to have a wonderful series down under. At an average of 98, he has amassed 392 runs thus far. As a result, Australia’s first innings total was 445 runs. After that, Cummins and company caused the damage when the visitors’ top order fell apart.
However, India was spared a follow-on scenario when Ravindra Jadeja and tailenders Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah stepped in. Due to frequent weather delays, the game continued into the last day with India at Stumps on Day 4 with 252/9, still 193 runs behind.
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