NEWS
Follow UsAustralia and England will rekindle their rivalry in the third Ashes Test starting Thursday, July 6, at Headingley in Leeds. Ahead of the much-awaited clash, Pat Cummins has hinted at a few changes to the playing XI for the visiting side, who are 2-0 up in the five-match series.
"Nathan isn't available, so you'd think Murph would pretty much come straight in," said Cummins in a pre-match press conference.
The veteran off-spinner suffered a horrifying calf injury in the second Test at Lord's and will miss the remainder of the series.
Another change that would likely take place is the exclusion of Josh Hazlewood, who has just recovered from his injury. The right-arm pacer missed the summit clash of the World Test Championship against India but featured in the first two Tests.
The Aussie skipper hinted that Scott Boland, who featured in the final at The Oval, might be drafted into the playing XI for Hazlewood in the third match.
"The tour so far for him (Hazlewood) has gone as well as he could have hoped – no injuries, but he is kind of in uncharted territory for the last year or two.
"I think he bowled about 25 and 35 overs in the two Ashes Tests, which isn't extreme numbers, but again you weigh up this game versus the last two, how he's tracking, so we'll work through that," Cummins said.
"You don't want to put anyone in higher risk than you'd like knowing that there's a couple of fresh guys on the bench that can come straight in. With Scotty, we have such high standards for him because of how well he bowled. You saw in that little stretch where conditions were in our favour how damaging he could be.
"You could argue we haven't got the best of conditions this tour so far. We are super confident with either Scotty or Neser that they do a super job. We'd have to have a look at the wicket but think Scotty would be the obvious one," he concluded.
