crushed the visitors<\/a> by 360 runs inside four days at Perth on Sunday, with off-spinner Nathan Lyon taking his 500th wicket.<\/p>\nOpener David Warner hit a battling 164 to ensure he retained his place for the Boxing Day Test in what is expected to be his farewell series.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old has indicated that the third Test in Sydney will be his last and had been under pressure after a lean run and with former fast bowler Mitchell Johnson saying he did not deserve a hero\u2019s farewell.<\/p>\n
Morris was released to play in the Big Bash League with pace spearheads Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood injury free and Scott Boland the first choice should a replacement be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cLance has been released for the Melbourne match but will stay prepared for Test cricket as he remains firmly in our plans for the summer, should an opportunity arise,\u201d said chief selector George Bailey. \u201cOtherwise, the squad remains unchanged following the strong performance in Perth.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Cameron Green eager to break back into Australia\u2019s starting XI, Marnus Labuschagne felt a rush of relief when he was cleared to play in the second Test after taking a nasty blow to his pinky finger in the hosts\u2019 series-opening win.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne needed medical attention after being struck on the right hand by debutant Khurram Shahzad early in the second innings in Perth before top-edging the Pakistan quick to be out for two.<\/p>\n
All-rounder Green, who lost his place in the squad to Mitchell Marsh, texted best wishes before Labuschagne went in for a scan.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne joked that he told Green not to get his hopes up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said, \u2018I hope it all goes well, good luck,\u2019\u201d Labuschagne told reporters. \u201cI just said, \u2018Its not going to make a difference, mate\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to have take something pretty serious to have me miss a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labuschagne was one of several batters sporting bruises in the wake of Australia\u2019s win on day four after the Perth Stadium pitch deteriorated rapidly.<\/p>\n
Marsh, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja all suffered body blows, while Pakistan were skittled for 89 in their second innings.<\/p>\n
Pundits questioned whether the cracked wicket was too lively for a fair contest but Labuschagne stopped short of calling it unsafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one likes batting when it\u2019s like that, up-and-down. The sharp, steep bounce on a fast wicket. It\u2019s not a cup of tea for anyone,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you just have to find a way when it\u2019s like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Squad: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland, Cameron Green.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PERTH: Australia are on track to play an unchanged XI in the second Test against Pakistan in Melbourne, announcing a trimmed-down squad Monday with back-up fast bowler Lance Morris omitted. The home side crushed the visitors by 360 runs inside four days at Perth on Sunday, with off-spinner Nathan Lyon taking his 500th wicket. Opener […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/1910462246053e6.jpg?r=104627","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}