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Australia will take an unchanged line-up into Friday’s second Test against Sri Lanka as they look to win their first long-format series since the Ashes.
Despite being called into the squad in place of Matt Renshaw after Australia’s thumping win at the Gabba, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has missed out on making his Test debut in Canberra.
Australia captain Tim Paine confirmed the team on Thursday for the second Test starting on Friday at Manuka Oval.
Australia: Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Kurtis Patterson, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Jhye Richardson.
Earlier, Justin Langer hinted Marcus Stoinis would miss out on a Test debut against Sri Lanka while Mitchell Starc was expected to keep sharing the new ball.
Grass cover evident on the Manuka Oval pitch meant Langer stuck with six batsmen and no allrounder.
“My gut feeling is it’s always nice to keep the same XI after you’ve had a win,” Langer told radio station SEN before training.
“We’ll have a look at it this afternoon and if there’s that little bit of grass on it I’d be surprised if we changed the team.”
Australia’s bowlers spent just 107 overs in the field in the big win in Brisbane, wrapping the game up in just 2-1/2 days.
Pat Cummins claimed his first 10-wicket haul for a match and Jhye Richardson also impressed on debut, while Starc claimed just two wickets and was again wayward at times.
But Langer indicated he’d resist the calls from the likes of Brett Lee and Shane Warne to give Cummins the new ball ahead of Starc.
“He (Cummins) has done a great job bowling first change for us,” Langer said.
“It’s always nice when Starcy gets the ball to swing. We saw that during the India series, if he gets the ball to swing back in to the right-handers he can be really dangerous.
“Jhye Richardson swings the ball as well and he was excellent with the new ball in Brisbane so we will wait and see.
“I’d be surprised if we changed that combination actually.”
© AAP
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