Australia’s in-form batter and India’s nemesis Travis Head passed a fitness test on Wednesday to retain his place in Australia’s playing eleven, which the hosts announced on the eve of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Announcing the eleven playing members for the match in Melbourne Cricket Ground beginning on Thursday, captain Pat Cummins confirmed the two expected changes.
Opener Sam Konstas will make his debut, replacing Nathan McSweeney, and pacer Scott Boland returned to the eleven for the injured Josh Hazlewood.
Head suffered a quad strain during the third Test in Brisbane and his fitness was under a cloud, until he passed the fitness Test held on Thursday during the Christmas Day optional training session, which included various running drills.
Cummins also revealed that Head, the leading run-scorer of this series so far, also had a short net session.
Head leads the batting charts by a mile, having scored 409 runs in his five innings so far at an average of 81.80, including two centuries. The second-placed batter in the list is India’s KL Rahul with 235 runs in six innings.
With the Border Gavaskar Trophy and a place in the World Test Championship final at stake, the five-Test series is delicately placed at 1-1 after three matches. India won the first Test in Perth by 295 runs, and Australia came back to level things up with a 10-wicket victory in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide.
The third Test at the Gabba in Brisbane ended in a draw.
Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
