Australia won't attempt to replace injured Nathan Lyon with another spin bowler for the fourth Ashes test against England and will go into Friday's match with a 12-man, pace-heavy squad.
After Lyon suffered a long-term hamstring injury in the Ashes-clinching win in Adelaide and later underwent surgery, offspinner Todd Murphy was called into the squad. But with the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) pitch showing plenty of grass, Australia opted to leave Murphy out when they named their squad on Thursday.
Captain Steve Smith will wait until the toss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday before confirming a starting XI. England lost each of the first three Tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action.
It's unusual for an Australian team not to select a spinner at the MCG, a place where Shane Warne and Lyon have tasted success. “A lot of the wickets we're playing on at present are certainly more seam-friendly than spin-friendly,” Smith said on Thursday.
“Last week in Adelaide was an anomaly; we saw some rough and we saw Nathan come in to play big-time. It's a tricky one. You've just got to play what surface you're presented with, and this one out here looks like it's going to offer a fair bit of assistance for the seam bowlers," he said.
Joining Lyon and captain Pat Cummins on the sidelines are Josh Inglis, and fast bowlers Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser. Left-handed veteran Usman Khawaja was preferred to Inglis after making 82 and 40 in the third Test in Adelaide. Richardson is in contention to play his first Test in more than four years after a bad run of injuries. Doggett and Neser played in the second Test in Brisbane, but were left out in Adelaide when Cummins and Lyon returned.
England had named their team on Wednesday minus star bowler Jofra Archer, who will miss the rest of the series.
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