Australia Playing XI for 5th Ashes Test: Who has replaced Travis Head in Australia’s 12-member squad for Oval Test?

Australia Playing XI for 5th Ashes Test: Australia have made a solitary change to their squad for the last Test of the series.

In a bid to register their first Test series victory in England since 2001, Australia have made a solitary change to their 12-member squad for the Old Trafford Test. Australia co vice-captain Travis Head has been dropped for the fifth Test to be played from tomorrow at The Oval.

In the four Tests that Head has played in the series, he has scored 191 runs at an average of 27.28 and a strike rate of 48.84 including a half-century. While the southpaw has got off to starts, he hasn’t been able to convert them into substantial scores.

Australia Playing XI for 5th Ashes Test

As a replacement for Head, Australia have included all-rounder Mitchell Marsh to their squad. Having scored an impressive half-century in the warm-up match against Derbyshire, it seemed as if Marsh would get the nod at Old Trafford but that wasn’t to be.

Marsh had last played for Australia in Tests during India’s tour of Australia last year. In 31 Tests, Marsh has scored 1,219 runs with the bat and grabbed 35 wickets. Speaking during the pre-match press conference, Australia captain Tim Paine revealed the reason behind including Marsh for the Oval Test.

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“The reason Travis [Head] isn’t playing is because we felt we needed extra bowling after a long series. We want to get the make-up right for this Test and unfortunately Travis misses out. He’s disappointed he’s not playing. No doubt he’s in the top six or seven batsmen in this country,” Paine was quoted as saying.

A solitary change means that Australia will continue to pick three out of four fast bowlers from Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle.

Australia Playing XI for 5th Ashes Test (Predicted) – 1) David Warner 2) Marcus Harris 3) Marnus Labuschagne 4) Steve Smith 5) Matthew Wade 6) Mitchell Marsh 7) Tim Paine (c & wk) 8) Pat Cummins 9) Nathan Lyon 10) & 11) Josh Hazlewood / Mitchell Starc / Peter Siddle