Australia to bat first as Melbourne bakes in heatwave

Sam Konstas' Boxing Day baptism of fire will begin immediately as Pat Cummins elected to bat first in scorching heat after winning his first toss of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Presented his Baggy Green by former Test captain Mark Taylor on Thursday morning, Konstas' first challenge as an international cricketer will be to survive star paceman Jasprit Bumrah on what's been tipped as another seam-friendly MCG pitch.

Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

 

India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep

The visitors have dropped Shubman Gill with captain Rohit Sharma promoting himself to the No.3 position having struggled at No.6 in the past two Tests.

Allrounder Washington Sundar comes in for Gill to give India two spin options along with Ravindra Jadeja, who is listed to bat at No.6.

Australia confirmed on Christmas Day that Scott Boland would replace Josh Hazlewood, who is out for the series with a calf injury he suffered in the Brisbane Test.

Gill managed only 60 runs in three innings in this series, becoming the fall guy for India's misfiring top-order. Rohit and Virat Kohli have fared little better, with the latter conceding his team needs more from him in a rare interview before play on Thursday.

"If you would have told us we're going to be one-all heading into the Boxing Day Test, we would have taken it with both hands," Kohli told his former India coach Ravi Shastri on Fox Cricket.

"I agree – the last two or three innings haven't gone the way I wanted to. I haven't been disciplined enough to stick in there and really grind it out. That's the challenge that Test cricket brings.

"These pitches are much more livelier than the last time that we played here, so there's a different approach that's required. But that's something that I've taken a lot of pride in – to go out there and counter different conditions and step up."

Cummins' toss call bucks conventional wisdom at the MCG, where most captains have wanted to bowl first in recent times.

Only twice in 18 first-class matches here since the 2018 Boxing Day Test has a captain chosen to bat – on both occasions, it came in Australia-India Tests.

Kohli batted in 2018-19 and led his side to victory, while Tim Paine made the same toss call in 2020-21, though India won again anyway.

Bowling first, however, has been far from a lay down misère in recent games; six of the past seven first-class games here have been won by the team that has been inserted.

"(The pitch) looks good, always bit of grass on it like a normal MCG wicket, but sun's out and it looks nice and firm," Cummins said at the toss, with Rohit conceding he also would have batted.

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