Australia vs India: After Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh drop Aaron Finch from Sydney Test

Australia didn’t have an auspicious time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) by any stretch of the imagination as India beat them by 137 runs to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series. The fourth and final Test is scheduled to start on Thursday, January 3 at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). It goes without saying that the hosts need to pull off something incredible in order to make a comeback.

In the meantime, former Australian captain Steve Waugh has named his version of the hosts’ playing eleven in Sydney. The 53-year-old has dropped Aaron Finch, who has scored 97 runs thus far in the series at a dismal average of 16.16. Another Aussie great in Ricky Ponting also believes Finch shouldn’t play the next match. As per Waugh, Shaun Marsh should open the batting with Marcus Harris.

No changes in the bowling attack

Waugh also reckons Marnus Labuschagne, the spin-bowling all-rounder, who has been included for the last encounter, should get to play. The South Africa-born player made his international debut against Pakistan in the two-match Test series in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) back in October. Moreover, Waugh has persisted with Mitchell Marsh, who hasn’t had the greatest of times of late for the national team.

He didn’t tinker with the bowling lineup though. Amidst some lacklustre show by the batters, the bowlers have done reasonably well. The pace bowling troika, involving Mitchell Starc (12), Josh Hazlewood (11) and Pat Cummins (14), has a combined tally of 37 wickets in the series. Nathan Lyon, the off-spinner, is their leading wicket-taker in this series with 17 wickets with best figures of 6/122.

Here is the eleven

Marcus Harris, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Tim Paine (C & WK), Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Here’s Waugh’s post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

My batting order from the selected squad for the Sydney test. #baggygreen #indiavsaustralia #leveltheseries @ourscg #marshtoplaygilchristrole

A post shared by Steve Waugh (@stevewaugh) on Dec 30, 2018 at 5:28pm PST

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