Home team Australia are riding on a high having already won the Ashes series at home by 3-0 with 2 matches to go in this 5-match series. However, they are yet to field the same playing XI for two consecutive matches in this series! Incidentally, they had to make one forced change for the fourth Test match as well.
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Travis Head has been ruled out of the fourth Ashes Test after being tested positive for COVID-19 and Usman Khawaja takes his place in the XI. Head and Khawaja were fighting for the lone available fifth spot in the line-up while Head was the home team's first-choice player at no. 5 for the first 3 games of this series.
Head had an impressive outing with the bat in this series having kick-started with 152 at Gabba which earned him the Player of the Match award! He also had a half-century in the pink ball Test at Adelaide Oval. Overall, Head scored 248 runs at an average of 62.00 in this series so far. Those are big shoes to fill for Usman Khawaja who is coming into the XI for the SCG Test match!
On the other hand, Josh Hazlewood who is suffering from a side strain injury has been ruled out of the SCG Test match as well. The Australian captain Pat Cummins is hoping to see Josh fully fit and play the fifth Ashes Test match as Hobart.
"It's no secret that if Joshy Hazlewood was available then he was going to play. He's been just a brilliant bowler for us for a long period of time. We gave Josh every chance we could, just felt like he couldn't bowl at full tilt yesterday. We're still hoping he'll be right for Hobart," said Pat Cummins.
With Josh missing out, Scott Boland who had an impressive outing at MCG retained his place in the XI for the SCG Test. The 30-year old pacer picked up 6 wickets conceding just 7 runs in England's second innings in his 4 overs to help Australia win by an innings margin at the G.
Australia XI for SCG Test: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon
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