Australia’s in-form batter and India’s nemesis Travis Head handed a health check on Wednesday to retain his place in Australia’s playing eleven, which the hosts introduced on the eve of the Boxing Day Test in melbourne,
Announcing the eleven playing members for the match in Melbourne Cricket Ground starting on Thursday, captain Pat Cummins confirmed the 2 anticipated modifications.
“Trav’s good to go, he’ll play,” mentioned the house workforce’s captain. “He just kicked off some final things today and yesterday. But no worries about injury with Trav. He’ll go into the game fully fit.”
opener Sam Konstas will make his debut, changing Nathan McSweeney, and pacer Scott Boland returned to the eleven for the injured Josh Hazlewood.
Head suffered a quad pressure in the course of the third Test in Brisbane and his health was below a cloud, till he handed the health Test held on Thursday in the course of the Christmas Day elective coaching session, which included numerous working drills.
Cummins additionally revealed that Head, the main run-scorer of this collection up to now, additionally had a brief internet session. However, the workforce might need to handle if he feels any discomfort whereas fielding in the course of the match.
“I don’t think you’ll see too much management of him throughout the game. He just kind of plays as is. Maybe around fielding, if he’s a bit uncomfortable, we will (manage him), but he’s fully fit,” mentioned Cummins.
Head leads the batting charts by a mile, having scored 409 runs in his 5 innings up to now at a median of 81.80, together with two centuries. The second-positioned batter in the record is India’s KL Rahul with 235 runs in six innings.
“It feels like the last 12 months, he’s been in this unbelievable vein of form and he just keeps going on with it,” mentioned the Aussie pacer. “He’s hitting the ball really cleanly. You can see the pressure that he shifts back onto the opposition literally from the first ball that he walks out there.
“I’m loving that he is in our workforce and I haven’t got to attempt to set a area and bowl to him. He’s hitting the ball as effectively as I’ve ever seen anybody. So lengthy could it proceed.”
With the Border Gavaskar Trophy and a place in the World Test Championship final at stake, the five-Test series is delicately placed at 1-1 after three matches. India won the first Test in Perth by 295 runs, and Australia came back to level things up with a 10-wicket victory in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide.
The third Test at the Gabba in Brisbane ended in a draw.
Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
