Ashes 2017: England announces unchanged squad for Perth Test

Bairstow will be promoted to number six as per reports.

Bairstow can earn himself a promotion in the batting order in Perth. (Getty)

Teams get down to some serious business in Perth keeping aside the recent controversies involving players from both the camps. England have kept the faith with the same XI that lost the Adelaide Test, naming the same side for the third Magellan Ashes Test in Perth, starting on Thursday.

While the personnel is the same, the tourists have announced a change to their batting line-up with Jonny Bairstow elevated to No.6 in the order and allrounder Moeen Ali dropped down to No.7.

 

Australia will wait until the morning of the match to finalize their XI, with allrounder Mitchell Marsh tipped to take the place of batsman Peter Handscomb.

 

Bairstow has scored more than 20 in three of his four innings so far in the series, but his low position in the order has seen him stuck manoeuvring the tail on several occasions.

The exclusion of all-rounder Ben Stokes due to his involvement in a Bristol brawl in September had thrown the England batting order out of whack, with Moeen promoted to No.6 and Bairstow at No.7 to bat with the tail.

Moeen, in particular, has struggled against Lyon and has been dismissed by his fellow off-spinner in four innings out of four.

The lack of changes to the England side would come as a surprise to former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who last week said the tourists would have to take action at the selection in order to stay in the series.

Ponting, though, did forecast the move up the order of Bairstow as one of the changes the tourists might make."I think they’ll make a lot of changes for the next Test,” Ponting told cricket.com.au in the wake of the Adelaide Test. "They have to, because what they’ve done so far has not been competitive.

"They’ve got a lot of areas of concern and I still don’t think their batting line-up is right.

"Even again today, Jonny Bairstow looks like their second or third best batsman, as far as I’m concerned, he’s batting at No.7 and with the gloves on”, concluded Ponting.

England XI: Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson.

 
 

By Anshuman Roy - 13 Dec, 2017

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