For the Boxing Day Test, the English team dropped Stuart Brad, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes from their playing XI, while Jonny Bairstow, Jack Crowley, Jack Leach and Mark Wood have been named.
The England team has announced the playing XI for the third match of the Ashes series. The team, which has lost two consecutive matches, has decided to enter the third match of seven changes of four. The English team dropped Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes from their playing XI for the Boxing Day Test, while Jonny Bairstow, Jack Crowley, Jack Leach and Mark Wood were named.
Big changes were expected in the team after England’s two consecutive defeats to Australia. Now with the announcement of the team before the match starting on Sunday, all the speculations have been put to rest. England team is trailing 0-2 in this 5-match series. Hosts Australia have shown a great game and won both the matches almost unilaterally. On Saturday, the official Twitter handle of the team informed about the four changes. It was written on Twitter, ‘We have made four changes for the Boxing Day match.
The third test match of the series will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Due to losing the first two matches, now to save the series from England, the team will have to win the third match at any cost. This match will start at 10:30 according to India’s time. Australia won the first match by 9 wickets while in the second match, England had to face defeat by 275 runs.
England’s playing XI for the third test:
Haseeb Hameed, David Malan, Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow, Jack Crowley, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Olly Robinson, James Anderson, Jack Leach, Mark Wood