AUS v IND 2018-19: Australia announce their Playing XI for the Perth Test

Having clinched the first game by 31 runs, the visitors lead the four-match Test series, 1-0.

Australia are backing themselves to level the series in Perth | Getty

Australia has retained an unchanged playing XI for the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Perth starting Friday, December 14.

Despite the 31-run loss at the Adelaide Oval, the Tim Paine led side has wisely decided to reaffirm confidence and faith in its troops with the immediate objective being to try and win level the four-match series against Virat Kohli's men.

Australia has done what one of their former skipper had called for, with batting legend Ricky Ponting asking for persistence with the same eleven that took the field last week.

"When you start moving guys around, it just creates more uncertainty. Finch would potentially train differently next week that he had this week because he’s not opening (and) Usman has to train differently because he is opening. Little things like that would come into their minds. If I was them, I’d be tempted to keep it the same way," Ponting had earlier said to cricket.com.au.

Now, captain Paine has gone down that route, reaffirming that it would be highly "unfair" to drop Mitchell Starc or any of the guys after just one failure in execution fazed with India's resilience and defiance.

Australia XI: Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 13 Dec, 2018

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