Picture Credit: Twitter/@CricketAus
Australia announced an unchanged 15-member squad for the three remaining Ashes Test set to happen in Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart. It has been learnt that both pacers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will be fit in time to rejoin the team when they meet in Melbourne on Thursday.
In absence of captain Cummins, it is Steve Smith who is leading the Kangaroos in the ongoing Test match at Adelaide where they are closing in on another win and extending their lead to 2-0 after already having won the opening Test match.
"Australia has named an unchanged 15-man squad for the three remaining Vodafone Ashes Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart. Australia has a travel day tomorrow and rest days on Tuesday and Wednesday," Cricket Australia said in a statement.
Meanwhile, talking about England's problems and how they can overcome them, legendary leg spinner Shane Warne feels the visitors must include a spinner in their XI and not solely rely on part-time options, something former English cricketer Isa Guha felt was the right thing to do.
England have to play a spinner, you can’t play five seamers: Shane Warne
"It sounds like everyone in England’s confused, even Isa, you have to play a spinner," Warne said in a panel discussion prior to day five on Fox Cricket.
"We saw it here, we’ve seen a spinner in Melbourne, it’s flat, it’s hard to get people out. You have to play a spinner, you can’t play five seamers," he added.
However, both Warne and Isa were on the same page when it came to the inclusion of Mark Wood. In addition, Warne backed off-spinner Dom Bess to come into the side since the Aussies have four-left handers in their top-seven.
"I agree with Isa, Mark Wood has to come back in but you’ve got to play a spinner. You’ve got to consider Dom Bess as an off-spinner with four left-handers in the top seven, he adds a bit of batting down the back, or you go back to Jack Leach. I thought he was harshly treated after Brisbane; 140 on the board it was very tough conditions and then they got rid of him again," Warne stated.
Australia's Test squad for remainder of Ashes:
Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner