London, June 10 (UNI) Australia captain Pat Cummins on Tuesday revealed his side’s playing XI for the ICC World Test Championship at Lord’s.
Cummins spoke to the media here and announced the XI the reigning World Test Championship winners will use is exactly the one as predicted by Australian great Ricky Ponting on The ICC Review last month.
Former No.1 ranked Test batter Marnus Labuschagne will push up the order to open alongside Usman Khawaja, while Josh Hazlewood won the race against Scott Boland to partner left-armer Mitchell Starc and Cummins in the pace attack.
All-rounder Cameron Green will play his first Test since back surgery, while Beau Webster retains his spot in the XI and will provide the bowlers some support with his medium pace and spin options.
Cummins explained his reasons why selectors opted for Labuschagne at the top of the order and decided to leave teenager Sam Konstas out of the XI, an ICC report said.
“With Marnus moving, we thought it’s one spot up really. It’s not too different to batting three,” Cummins said.
“Marnus has experience, he has done well here at Lord’s and in England in general,” he said.
“Opening the batting can be tough, but it can also be sometimes the best time to bat, before the Dukes ball actually starts swinging,” Cummins said.
“There’s an opportunity to score there, so just keeping that ball in tow I think is going to mean something,” he said.
Cummins said Konstas was disappointed to miss out, but believes the 19-year-old has a strong future ahead with the side.
“Realistically, he’s really young, he’s got a long career ahead of him,” Cummins said.
“So hopefully, even by not playing, we can show him their learning opportunities,” he said.
Cummins also spoke in depth surrounding the decision to leave Boland out of the XI and opt for Hazlewood.
“There are some guys where you generally say you’ve done nothing wrong, don’t change a thing, and that’s Scott and he’s just really unfortunate to miss out,” the skipper said.
“The message to Scott is there’s a lot of Test matches coming up in the next couple of years, and just because you’re in your mid-30s doesn’t mean you’re missing this Test and that’s the last Test of your career,” he said.
“I think by having a squad of fast bowlers, hopefully we can extend a lot of careers for an extra couple of years,” Cummins added.
Australia XI: 1. Usman Khawaja, 2. Marnus Labuschagne, 3. Cameron Green, 4. Steve Smith, 5. Travis Head, 6. Beau Webster, 7. Alex Carey (wk), 8. Pat Cummins (c), 9. Mitchell Starc, 10. Nathan Lyon, 11. Josh Hazlewood.
