Ashes 2021-22 | England make four changes in the squad for the Melbourne Test
England have made four changes to their squad after trailing behind by 2-0 in the series ahead of the Melbourne Test. Jonny Bairstow, Jack Leach, Zak Crawley and Mark Wood are included in place of Ollie Pope, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns and Chris Woakes aiming to bounce back in the series.
Australia are leading the Ashes by 2-0 after winning the Adelaide Test by 275 runs and have totally dominated their opponents in the series so far. England have a lot of problems at hand to consider and will be looking to get rid of them in the upcoming fixtures. England have announced their squad for the next fixture in Melbourne and have made four changes.
Rory Burns has been in poor form opening the innings for England in the series. He has scored only 51 runs in the first two Tests. Ollie Pope has been also failing consistently scoring only 48 runs in the series. Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley will replace these two in the batting order. Bairstow has 4381 runs from 78 Test matches while Crawley has amassed 737 runs from 15 fixtures at an average of 28.35.
Chris Woakes has taken three wickets in the series while Stuart Broad has two wickets. Mark Wood and Jack Leach both will return to the squad after missing the Adelaide Test. The third Test of the series will start from December 26 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
England XI for third Ashes Test: Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson.