LONDON: Marnus Labuschagne will open the batting for Australia and Josh Hazlewood has been selected in the bowling line-up for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s, captain Pat Cummins said on the eve of the game on Tuesday.
Labuschagne has been moved up the order to accommodate the return of Cameron Green, who underwent back surgery in October and was ruled out of the home season, while Hazlewood is fit again after a calf injury to replace of Scott Boland.
“Cam Green has been coming back in great form in the last few weeks and we thought he deserved a spot in the batting lineup. We thought three probably suits him best,” Cummins told a press conference.
“For Marnus moving one spot up, it’s not too different to batting at three. He’s done well here in England in the past.”
Leaving out Boland, who had been one of the heroes of Australia’s 3-1 Test series win over India this year, had been a difficult decision.
“There are some guys where you genuinely say, you’ve done nothing wrong, don’t change a thing and that’s Scotty. He is just really unfortunate to miss out.
“The message to Scotty is there’s a lot of Test cricket coming up in the next couple of years and just because your mid-30s doesn’t mean that’s the end of your career.
“By having a squad of fast bowlers, hopefully we can extend all our care for an extra couple of years.”
An element of selection criteria was to reward those who had contributed to defending champions Australia winning 13 of 19 Tests in the two-year WTC cycle and reaching yet another final.
“I think our selectors have probably shown you that they’re happy and they’d rather give someone an extra little run than pull the pin too early. I think it’s partly rewarding those guys that got us here.”
Cummings said defending the title was high on the Australian priority list, even after all their success in the limited-overs formats.
“It’s a trophy we’ve spoken a lot about over the last couple of years. “Test cricket is my favourite format. You’ve got to basically win in all different conditions to make it into this final. If we can retain that mace, that’s a pretty awesome thing for this team.”
Australia team: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
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