Head passed fit as Australia reveal XI for Boxing Day

Australia have received the ultimate Christmas presents – Travis Head has been passed fit to play the Boxing Day Test against India and will be joined in the side by MCG hero Scott Boland.

Captain Pat Cummins confirmed his team would make two changes for the fourth NRMA Insurance Test in Melbourne, with Sam Konstas to debut (replacing Nathan McSweeney) and Boland coming in for the injured Josh Hazlewood.

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

There were concerns over the fitness of the hosts' leading batter, Head, who was revealed to have suffered a quad strain during the Brisbane Test.

In what was otherwise a leisurely Christmas Day optional training session, Head underwent a stringent fitness test consisting of running drills in sight of where Australian players' families roamed on the MCG outfield.

But Cummins told reporters the left-hander, who also had a short net session, had ticked all the boxes and would be right to face India from Thursday.

"Trav's good to go, he'll play," Australia's skipper said. "He just ticked off some final things today and yesterday. But no worries about injury with Trav. He'll go into the game fully fit.

"I don't think you'll see too much management of him throughout the game. He just kind of plays as is. Maybe around fielding, if he's a bit uncomfortable, we will (manage him), but he's fully fit."

Head would have been an enormous loss for the home side - he has more than double the runs of the next best-performed Australia batter in this series. 

"It feels like the last 12 months, he's been in this unbelievable vein of form and he just keeps going on with it," said Cummins.

"He's hitting the ball really cleanly. You can see the pressure that he shifts back onto the opposition literally from the first ball that he walks out there.

"I'm loving that he's in our team and I don't have to try to set a field and bowl to him. He's hitting the ball as well as I've ever seen anyone. So long may it continue."

Josh Inglis was the likely standby player for Head, with the uncapped wicketkeeper-batter also among the few Australians who took the opportunity to train on Wednesday.

But his wait for a Baggy Green goes on for now.

Not so for Konstas, who will earn his cap on the biggest day on the Australian cricket calendar in front of a sellout Boxing Day crowd.

Australia have not blooded a player as young as the 19-year-old since Cummins' own debut as an 18-year-old in 2011.

Konstas will be his country's youngest ever opener and it is believed his age gap with Usman Khawaja is the widest between opening partners in Test history.

Cummins, reflecting on his own Test debut in Johannesburg 13 years ago, said: "It's pretty awesome. I spent a bit of the time wondering why, or how, I was there and how it happened so quick. I just remember being really excited.

"I think it's similar to Sammy this week. There's a level of naivety that you just want to go out and play like you do when you're a kid in the backyard. You just want to take the game on, have fun, and not overthink it.

"That's the message to Sam. That's definitely how I felt as an 18-year-old. I was just really excited, and once the game started, you go into game-mode and it's just like any other game."

Australia's captain brought the press to laughter when he recounted: "I remember as an 18-year-old I was thinking, 'I've got a lot more leeway because I was young' - almost publicly - so I almost felt like, if I didn't have a great game, it wasn't my fault - it was the selectors' fault for picking me.

"I was like, 'well, they're the idiots that picked an 18 year old!'

"You're so young starting out your career – it's Boxing Day, it doesn't get any better than this. So just enjoy the moment."

Boland is back after a strong first outing in 18 months in the second Test against India in Adelaide, snaring five wickets when Hazlewood missed with a side strain. The latter has since suffered a series-ending calf injury.

Coach Andrew McDonald joked he would not be able to show his face at the MCG if they did not pick the hometown hero Boland, whose 6-7 on Test debut in the 21-22 Ashes has become part of the iconic venue's folklore.

"He bowled beautifully in Adelaide," Cummins said of Boland. "Whenever he gets his chance, he steps in and looks like he's one of the best bowlers in the world.

"I expect him (to do) much the same. He loves bowling here, he's played probably more than anyone else here at the MCG in our team. He's prepared really well.

"It is pretty awesome that even with an unfortunate injury like Josh has, you can have someone like Scotty to come straight in seamlessly."

India did not train on Christmas Day and will reveal their XI at the toss on Boxing Day.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal