England vs Australia, 1st Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Deepu's corner: Rory Burns becomes the latest Test batsman to bat on all five days

• ML Jaisimha v Aus 1960

• G Boycott v Aus 1977

• K Hughes v Eng 1980

• A Lamb v WI 1984

• R Shastri v Eng 1984

• A Griffith v NZ 1999

• A Flintoff v Ind 2006

• A Petersen v NZ 2012

• C Pujara v SL 2017

• R Burns v Aus 2019

From ground zero

Our English correspondent, Rob Johnston, is at the venue nice and early. Is he wearing a tie today.. I don't know! But here's what he has to say, "Lovely morning here in Birmingham. The sun is shining and the weather is set fair for the whole day. Looks a good day for batting."

While we wait...

-- Oh plenty of good reading stuff today. First up, on Steve Smith. Bharat Sundaresan wonders if Smith is a genius or just ingenious, also compares him with Jimi Hendrix, the great American rock guitarist. "Well every shot that Smith does play, owing to the positions he gets into mostly, are the cricketing versions of blue notes. But unlike when you play them on a guitar, they aren't played at a slightly different pitch than standard; they just seem to be played on a different pitch to the others playing in the same match," he writes. There's more such beautiful lines in the copy.

-- Vithushan Ehantharajah discusses Moeen Ali, and how being indifferent is a good thing but not always. "In a game which can consume individuals and spit them out in utter disrepair, such perspective is golden and adds to Moeen's aura. But there is a lingering feeling he will rarely put in the extra work needed to absolve himself of a poor run of form. He is always doing what he has always done and, right now, it is not enough," he writes.

~ The Michael Vaughan vlog ~

Adam Collins caught up with Vaughan to discuss the fourth day's play. "For England to secure a draw, they will have to play Lyon well on Day 5," he says.

Hello, how's Monday going?

Fifth day is often the surplus we need. It's rare in modern times, when the rise of T20 cricket translates into "attacking" batting, meaning four days are the most we get. But here we have a fifth day at Edgbaston, that's definitely looked like one of the 15 most intimidating grounds in the world but not quite the unbreachable Colosseum of English cricket, like it was sold before this Test match. Rob Jonhston wrote in his preview how scheduling the first Test here was intentional but it's not quite worked out right for England. Not so fat at least. But can England hold this here? Nathan Lyon isn't quite at his best on a rocky last-day pitch -- it's not me but his stats telling that -- and we saw how Moeen Ali wilted yesterday under the pressure of taking wickets. Can Australia get this last push right?