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Australia will need six England wickets on the final day of the second Test at Adelaide Oval to clinch a 2-0 lead in the Ashes.

A double-strike from comeback quick Jhye Richardson and late blows from Mitchell Starc have Australia poised for victory over England in the second Ashes Test.

Set a world record target of 468 runs to win, England are 4-82 at stumps on day four in Adelaide.

Richardson, in his first Test since February 2019, removed openers Haseeb Hameed (zero) and Rory Burns (34) while debutant Michael Neser dismissed Dawid Malan (20).

And Starc, in the final over, dismissed a battered England captain Joe Root (24).

Root earlier on Sunday was sent to hospital for scans after being struck in the testicles while not wearing a protective box during batting warm-ups before play.

The skipper was cleared of serious injury but missed England's initial 80 minutes in the field.

Root appeared untroubled while batting until two overs before stumps when he was again struck in the groin, this time by a Starc delivery timed at 139.4km/h.

Root collapsed, doubled over and rolled on the ground, where he remained for minutes before slowly rising to his feet and taking a pain-killing tablet.

"Joe's a leader and a strong leader in the group and he has shown a hell of a lot of character to get out there and fight because I know he was pretty sore," England's bowling coach Jon Lewis said.

"And then once he got hit again to stay on, he could have easily have walked off and the nightwatchman could have come in.

"But that's the character of the man and what it means to him to England captain and he wants to show his team how hard he wants to fight for the team."

The frightful blow came as Root became England's highest run-scorer as Test captain, passing Alastair Cook's 4844-run mark.

But that milestone will be scant solace for Root after he nicked a Starc delivery to wicketkeeper Alex Carey in the last over,

His team stares a two-nil deficit in the best-of-five series with England's resistance resting largely with Ben Stokes (3no).

Australia declared their second innings at 9-230 some 50 minutes before tea with first-innings centurion Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head top-scoring with 51 apiece.

Head's aggressive 54-ball cameo rallied Australia after they lost 3-7 - including opener Marcus Harris for 23 and Steve Smith for six - in to wobble to 4-55.

And Labuschagne passed 50 in both innings for the fifth time in his 20 Tests.

Paceman Richardson then landed an early blow by dismissing Hameed for a duck in just the second over.

The in-form Malan, on 19, was dropped by Smith at slip from Nathan Lyon's bowling but, the next ball he faced, was trapped lbw by Neser (1-7).

Richardson (2-17) later struck again when enticing an edge to Smith at second slip to leave England 3-70 and, a dozen runs later, Root was out.

The highest successful fourth-innings Test run chase is the West Indies' 7-418 against Australia in 2003.

And the highest fourth-innings winning chase in Adelaide is Australia's 6-315 to beat England in 1901/02.