Australian captain Pat Cummins has unveiled the home side's playing XI for the first Test of the three-Test series against South Africa, which will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 17 onwards.
The Test series will be the first between these two sides after the infamous 2018 series in which the ball-tampering scandal happened during the Cape Town Test match.
Coming to the Australian playing XI, Pat Cummins returns to the team after missing the second Test against West Indies and will replace Michael Neser in the XI, while Scott Boland keeps his place as the third pacer behind Cummins and Starc after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the series due to injury.
The Gabba pitch sported a considerable tinge of green and typically provides one of the more pace-friendly surfaces in Test cricket. This gives encouragement to the pace attack of both sides with South Africa boasting of the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje.
"A couple of the boys said it's similar to what they've seen here in the past. It looks like there's a bit of grass. So we'll see how it looks tomorrow. They'll give it a final cut. It always looks pretty green here a couple of days out, then on the morning of day one it looks a bit different,” Cummins said on Friday.
Australia was unbeaten at Gabba from 1988-89 to 2020-21 when a depleted side led by Ajinkya Rahane completed a famous series victory for India in Brisbane to end their unbeaten run at the venue thanks to the batting heroics of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, as they chased down the 328-run target.
The Aussies restored order when they defeated England early on day four in last summer's Ashes opener.
"The last couple of years it's played a bit differently to how it has in the past. It's a funny one the Gabba – even if it has got grass on it, you do really need to bowl well. It's got a bit of bounce normally here. You can get carried away with the seam but you still need to hit the stumps,” Cummins added.
Pat Cummins also talked about the possible bowling attack of the Proteas and expects the tall left-arm pacer, Marco Jansen, to be chosen to take advantage of the Brisbane pitch.
"It looks like they've got a pretty well-rounded attack. Whether they play four or five bowlers, they've got a good spinner, a left-arm- they're going to be a challenge. You've seen the guys working super hard in the nets.
(Jansen) is just that point of difference. I've never faced him, I think a few of the guys have faced him in T20 cricket. It just presents a different challenge. He's tall, left-arm. Visually they look a bit different as well. we've certainly been thinking about that this week,” Cummins said.
Australia XI:
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
Australia v South Africa Test series schedule:
Dec 17-21: First Test, Gabba
Dec 26-30: Second Test, MCG
Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG
(Cricket Australia inputs)
