Pat Cummins is back: Australia has named their lineup for the opening Test match against South Africa, at Brisbane’s Gabba on Saturday, December 17. After being out from the second Test against the West Indies in Adelaide, skipper Pat Cummins has rejoined the team.
The Australian skipper was a major doubt for the series opener against Dean Elgar’s South Africa after sustaining a quadriceps injury during the first Test against the Windies in Perth. He missed the day-night clash against Proteas. With Steve Smith leading the team in Cummins’ absence, Australia easily cruised to a 419-run victory to seal a 2-0 series victory.
Since making his debut in the Ashes last year, Scott Boland has been nothing short of brilliant. Head coach Andrew McDonald strongly hinted at his inclusion earlier this week. Cummins will so take Michael Neser’s position in the lineup from Adelaide’s thrashing of the West Indies.
As per Cummins’ prediction, the pacers will benefit from some grass on the track. He quickly clarified, though, that bowlers must still perform effectively and avoid being coxed by the available seam.
Cummins quoted “A couple of the boys said it’s similar to what they’ve seen here in the past. It looks like there’s a bit of grass. So we’ll see how it looks tomorrow. They’ll give it a final cut. It always looks pretty green here a couple of days out, then on the morning of day one it looks a bit different.”
“The last couple of years it’s played a bit differently to how it has in the past. It’s a funny one the Gabba – even if it has got grass on it, you do really need to bowl well. It’s got a bit of bounce normally here. You can get carried away with the seam but you still need to hit the stumps,” the Australian skipper added.
Pat Cummins led Australian Playing XI
Australia XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(wk), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.
Men’s NRMA Insurance Test Series v South Africa
Dec 17-21: First Test, Gabba, 11:20 am AEDT
Dec 26-30: Second Test, MCG, 10:30 am AEDT
Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG, 10:30 am AEDT
Australia vs South Africa | Test series | Squads
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo
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