The Ashes | England make four changes ahead of third Test

Somya Kapoor

England have made four changes in the playing XI ahead of the third Ashes Test in Melbourne. Jonny Bairstow, Jack Leach, Zak Crawley and Mark Wood have come in place of Ollie Pope, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns and Chris Woakes.

“The Three Lions make four changes for the Boxing Day Test from the side that lost the second Test in Adelaide. Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Jack Leach and Mark Wood will replace Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes,” the ECB said in a release.

The visitors have faced issues with their batting in the last two matches. Pope has only one double-figure score in the four innings that he has played so far in the series while Burns too hasn’t been impressive in the first two games and has 0, 13, 4 and 34 to his name. 

Broad on the other side, who played the pink-ball Test managed to pick two wickets in the match while Woakes has picked three wickets in four innings. In fact, he gave away more than 100 runs in the first innings of the Day-night Test in Adelaide. England are trailing the five-match series 0-2. 

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.

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