Australia opt for all-pace attack in fourth Ashes Test

Australia will take an all-pace attack into the fourth Ashes Test, skipper Steve Smith said Thursday, while Josh Inglis was dropped with selectors preferring Usman Khawaja.

The hosts head into the Boxing Day Test with an unassailable 3-0 lead over England, but are without pace spearhead Pat Cummins and veteran spinner Nathan Lyon.

Cummins is being managed after his return in the third Adelaide Test after a lengthy lay off with a lower back injury and will play no further part in the Ashes.

Lyon had surgery this week for a torn hamstring and faces a long recovery.

Todd Murphy was called up as cover for Lyon, but Smith said they had opted for a pace attack given the “quite furry” surface at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“We’re going to be playing four quicks and no spinner. (The pitch) has 10 millimetres of grass, quite furry, quite green,” he said.

“I dare say it’s going to offer quite a bit, particularly if (day one) is similar conditions to today, quite cold and overcast so I dare say there’s going to be quite a bit of movement.

“You just got to play what surface you’re presented with,” he added.

“This one looks like it’s going to offer a fair bit of assistance for the seam bowlers and the weather throughout the week looks conducive for that too.”

Australia named a 12-man squad with a final decision on who leads the attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland being made at the toss.

One of Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, or Brendan Doggett will miss out.

Doggett and Neser played in the second Test in Brisbane, but made way in Adelaide when Cummins and Lyon returned.

Richardson is in his first squad for four years after three shoulder surgeries.

Smith missed the third Test with vertigo symptoms and will slot back in at number four.

Khawaja filled his role in Adelaide, hitting 82 and 40, and slides down to five ahead of Alex Carey and Cameron Green, with Inglis missing out.

Smith, who captained Australia in the first two Tests during Cummins’ absence, said he was fully recovered and feeling “100 percent” fit.

“I was watching in the hotel those first two days (in Adelaide) and wished I could have been out there, but it was the right call at that stage because I was struggling,” he said of his vertigo, an issue that has plagued him before.

Meanwhile, England bowler Jofra Archer will not play in the remaining two Ashes Tests due to a left side strain, a team official said Wednesday.

The fourth test begins Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the fifth on Jan. 3 in Sydney. Australia has a winning 3-0 lead in the five-test series and has retained the Ashes.

The 30-year-old Archer spent four years battling a variety of fitness issues, including stress fractures of the back and right elbow, but has been in strong form since making a long-awaited red-ball return against India.

He joined the squad at training on Wednesday at the MCG, but played no part in practice and a spokesperson later confirmed he was out for the remainder of the tour.

He had bowled a total of 80 overs in the games at Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, taking nine wickets at 27.11 and maintaining the lowest strike-rate among England bowlers. In the third test at Adelaide, he took five for 53 in the first innings and scored 51 runs.

Meanwhile, an Ashes tour that began with high hopes of taking home the urn has been reduced to a desperate effort to salvage some last vestiges of dignity as England head into one of the great ‍occasions on the ‌sporting calendar, the Boxing Day Test.

The tourists have been savaged since meekly surrendering the series to a makeshift Australia outfit ‍with a third straight defeat on Sunday in Adelaide, extending their winless streak in Australia to 18 Tests going back to January 2011.

Post-mortems on preparations, squad selection, player behaviour and skill execution will undoubtedly come, but England still ‍have two more dead rubber matches to negotiate before they are allowed to head home.

Team director Rob Key -- whose ‍job, like those of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, will be on the line if England succumb to a 5-0 whitewash -- reckons the tourists have been playing at around 20% of their skill level in Australia.

Agencies