Australia has brought in its star performers Cameron Green and Josh Hazelwood in place of Todd Murphy and Scott Boland for the crucial penultimate test starting today in Manchester. The Baggy Greens have gone in for an all-around pace attack without a specialist spinner on the team.
After missing out on the third test in Headingley, Cameron Green is set to make his way into the playing 11 to boost the batting lower down the order and Josh Hazelwood will also come back into the team in place of the underperforming Scott Boland in the playing 11.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Pat Cummins admitted David Warner didn’t have a good game in the Headingley test and asserted that he has looked in good touch in the first two matches, where he had some good start to the innings and reckons that Nathan Lyon is a big miss going into the crucial game.
“Davey didn’t have his best game last week at Headingley, but before that, he has looked really good, He has had three 50-run (opening) partnerships, which can be rare over in England. Nathan Lyon is the greatest offspinner we’ve ever had so it’s not quite apples for apples,” Pat Cummins said.
Australia lead the series 2-1 in the ongoing Ashes 2023 and they lost the last Test match in Leeds due to a brilliant performance by some spirited bowling by Mark Wood and some good batting by Harry Brook and co.
We Are Really Excited By Todd Murphy, We Think He’s Fantastic – Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins believes that Todd Murphy is an exciting talent in the team and asserted that he would have used him more in the last game and added that the playing 11 was selected based on the conditions in Manchester.
“We are really excited by Todd, we think he’s fantastic. I would have loved to use him a bit more last week, (but) conditions just favoured pace bowling. We played a Test in Hobart last year in the Ashes where Nath didn’t bowl an over. It’s all conditions-based,” Pat Cummins added.
The Australian team has done exceedingly well on England soil so far, as they showed a lot of composure to play the high-octane games in England. The Australian team will look to do well in the fourth test in Manchester to win the series on away soil.
Australia XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Josh Hazlewood.