Australia has been forced to make a change to their XI for the Boxing Day Test, after Mitchell Starc was ruled out due to a heel injury. He has been replaced by Jackson Bird in the side, which otherwise remains unchanged.
It continues a string of bad luck for Starc when it comes to the Boxing Day fixture which has seen him regularly forced to sit on the sidelines through injury during Australia’s most prominent and celebrated Test fixture of the year.
He has played only one Boxing Day Test in his career, in a win over Pakistan last year, but this will be the fourth occassion that he has missed the match, either due to injury or being dropped from the XI.
Hopefully the stint on the sidelines will enable him to recover quickly and be ready for Australia’s 2018 tour of South Africa, arguably a higher priority to focus on given that the Ashes have been officially reclaimed.
Bird makes his return to the top level having not played a Test in 12 months.
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