Beleaguered
England made as many as four changes to their playing XI ahead of the
much-anticipated Boxing Day Test with a hope of keeping their chances alive in
the ongoing Ashes Test series. Australia, on the other hand, handed young
paceman Scott Boland debut.  

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Joe Root’s
England face Australia in a must-win Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
on Sunday in front of a capacity crowd after suffering back to back defeats in
Brisbane and Adelaide. England lost the Brisbane Test by 9 wickets, while at
Adelaide Oval, in a day-night fixture, Australia handed them a massive 275 runs
defeat.

England’s
losses were marked by poor batting and bowling, and sloppy fielding.

Also Read: Ashes: Australia take a 2-0 lead, targeting 5-0

Zak Crawley recalled 

Ahead of
the Melbourne Test, England recalled Zak Crawley, who last played in August
against India, to replace Rory Burns. 78 Tests old Jonny Bairstow, meanwhile,
will return to the England team to play at number six as Ollie Pope’s
replacement. Pope has failed to adapt to the Australian conditions.

In the
bowling department, Mark Wood, who was dropped from the second Test in
Adelaide, has been recalled for the Boxing Day Test. Off-spinner Jack Leach
also gets another chance after being axed for the second Test despite the
Adelaide pitch having plenty in it for the slow bowlers.

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Meanwhile,
Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad have been dropped while veteran quick James Anderson and Ollie Robinson would comprise the bowling attack along with Wood.

Pat Cummins
returns

Steve Smith will have to go back to his position of vice-captain as regular captain Pat Cummins has returned to
the Australian team after missing the Adelaide Test after being a close contact
of a COVID-19 case. He replaced Michael Neser.

Also Read: Ashes: Joe Root becomes fourth player in history to score 1,600 Test runs in a calendar year

However,
Josh Hazlewood will again miss out as he continues to recover from a side
strain. Jhye Richardson, who took five wickets in England’s second innings at
Adelaide, is still sore from his efforts with Boland replacing him to become
the third Australian debutant this series after Neser and Alex Carey. In doing
so, he also becomes the first indigenous man to play Test cricket for Australia
since Jason Gillespie.

MCG is
Boland’s home ground, where he has taken 91 wickets at 25.71 in 26 first-class
games.

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Cummins
said his record at the Melbourne Cricket Ground factored into their thinking.
“It was a huge part of it. His record speaks for itself here in domestic
cricket,” he said.

Teams

England XI:
Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Ben Stokes, Jonny
Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson

Australia
XI: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head,
Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (capt), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon,
Scott Boland