England announced their playing XI for the MCG Test match a day in advance. Unlike the first two Tests where they announced a 12-man squad and then picked their XI at the toss, England now have named their XI a day in advance!
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Opener Rory Burns was out of form and is yet to score a half-century this series! Moreover, England were put under pressure with his first-ball Duck of the match at Gabba. His batting stance has come under severe scrutiny and he had to sit out for the MCG Test. Zak Crawley replaces him in the XI.
The second change was in the middle-order with Jonny Bairstow coming in for Ollie Pope. Except for the first innings at Gabba where Pope made 30-odd runs, there was no considerable contribution from the bat from Pope. In fact, Pope afterwards registered three straight single-digit scores on this tour! On the other hand, Bairstow played all 4 Tests at home against India before missing both the first two Ashes tests in this series.
The remaining two changes are more like a rotation policy which England have been doing well since the pandemic has started! Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad made way for Mark Wood and Jack Leach. Broad must have been gutted after the drop but England needs some serious pace in their bowling line-up! At one stage of the Adelaide Test, all the English bowlers were bowling in the 120s!
With the return of Jack Leach, England would look to maintain their over rate better in this Test match. Remember, Australia targetted Leach at Gabba and as a result, he was under-bowled in the match! In the same Test match, England were found guilty of bowling 8 overs short in that match and had to lose 8 WTC points! Australia might come with the same mindset at MCG!
"The Three Lions make four changes for the Boxing Day Test from the side that lost the second Test in Adelaide. Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Jack Leach, and Mark Wood will replace Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, and Chris Woakes," stated ECB in their media release.
England lost both the first two Test matches by big margins and are currently trailing the series by 0-2! They lost the Gabba Test by 9 wickets and lost the Adelaide Test by 275 runs! The third Test match will be played at MCG beginning on this Boxing Day.
England's XI for third Ashes Test: Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson.
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