tourists make four changes for Boxing Day



The venue is the Cricket Ground in Melbourne.

The Test Match Special and live text commentary are included in the coverage. The highlights show is on the iPlayer.

England have made four changes to their team for the third Test against Australia, which starts on Saturday in Melbourne.

The opening pair of Rory Burns and Ollie Pope will be replaced by Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow.

Mark Wood and Jack Leach were selected instead of Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.

England must win in Melbourne to keep the series alive.

Pat Cummins, who missed the second Test in Adelaide after being deemed a close contact of someone who tested positive for Covid-19, is back in the side.

Scott Boland will make his Test debut, with Michael Neser and Jhye Richardson left out.

The shuffle pack is from England.

Burns hit a battling 34 in the second Test at Adelaide but he has scored just 17 runs in his other three knocks and averages 12.75.

He is the only England player other than captain Joe Root who has hit a century in a Test match, but he has also been dismissed six times.

Pope, batting at number six in the opening two Tests, has scored just 48 runs as his career average dipped below 30.

In 2021, Crawley will average 11.14. A top score of 267 accounts for a third of the runs of the young man who will be playing his 16th Test.

Bairstow is on his third tour of Australia. The Yorkshireman scored a century in Perth on his last trip, but has a low score of 57 in 15 outings this year.

He won't be taking the gloves for the gloves, with Buttler who has dropped several chances, keeping his spot behind the stumps.

Buttler will be in front of a large crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to make up for his mistakes.

He said that they were not here to just take part and let 70,000 people enjoy another Australian victory.

We want to win the series and the Test match. We need to have the 'backs against the wall' attitude.

Everyone is excited to be here and I'm sure it will be hostile but that's to be embraced and enjoyed. We know we need to bring our best cricket, but we haven't done that yet.

We need to get there quickly.

You play the game because you want to be a part of big occasions. You need to play well when it's hard, but it isn't always going to be easy.

The England team.

Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonathan Bairstow, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson.

The Australia team.

David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, and David Warner are all involved.