No room for spin: Australia goes into 4th Ashes against England
Australia won’t attempt to replace injured Nathan Lyon with another spin bowler for the fourth Ashes test against England and will go into Friday’s start of the match with a 12-man, pace-heavy squad. After Lyon suffered a long-term hamstring injury in the Ashes-clinching win in Adelaide and later underwent surgery, offspinner Todd Murphy was called into the squad. But with the MCG pitch showing plenty of grass, Australia opted to leave Murphy out when it named its squad Thursday.
Captain Steve Smith will wait until the toss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday before confirming a starting XI. England lost each of the first three tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action. It’s unusual for an Australian team not to select a spinner at the MCG, a place where Shane Warne and Lyon have had success.
“A lot of the wickets we’re playing on at present are certainly more seam-friendly than spin-friendly,” Smith said on Thursday. “Last week (in Adelaide) was an anomaly; we saw some rough and we saw Nathan come in to play big-time. “It’s a tricky one. You’ve just got to play what surface you’re presented with, and this one out here looks like it’s going to offer a fair bit of assistance for the seam bowlers.”
Joining Lyon and captain Pat Cummins on the sidelines are Josh Inglis, with fast bowlers Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser included. Left-handed veteran Usman Khawaja was preferred to Inglis after making 82 and 40 in the third test in Adelaide. Richardson is in contention to play his first test in more than four years after a bad run of injuries.
Doggett and Neser played in the second test in Brisbane, but were left out in Adelaide when Cummins and Lyon returned. England named its team on Wednesday with the big news the loss of star bowler Jofra Archer for the rest of the series, including the fifth and final test starting January 4 in Sydney. Australia squad: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (captain), Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett, Scott Boland.
England team: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue.
