Australia name unchanged XI for the Adelaide D/N Test

Australian skipper Steve Smith has confirmed that hosts will go unchanged into the 2nd Ashes Test match in Adelaide. There were clouds over the fitness of the pace trio-Mitchell Johnson, Micthell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, but after a successful practice session, the pace battery will once again look to have a crack at the defending champions.

Australia clinched a convincing victory in Brisbane by 10 wickets. Smith starred with a match-winning unbeaten 141* in the first innings to hand the advantage in Australia’s favour. England will look to bounce back and level the series before it gets too late.

Smith said that the Adelaide deck looks like a good one and it will have good pace. “It looks like a bit harder than we’ve probably seen it for a while for a pink-ball game,” Smith said. “It looks like there is slightly less grass. I’d say it’s somewhere between an old Adelaide wicket and the newer wicket we’ve seen over the last couple of years. I think not as much sideways movement. There will still be good pace in the wicket but I think it looks a pretty good wicket.”

Handscomb plays mind games

Batsman Peter Hanscomb sounded confident ahead of the 2nd Test as he said that previous experience with the pink ball will hold them in a good state.”We’ve played with the pink Kookaburra ball for a long time and we’ve seen it change over the time and understand what it does do, especially here in Adelaide playing a few games,” Handscomb said yesterday.

“It is a good advantage for us and England haven’t played many games or trained much against the pink ‘Kooka’. It’s a different ball game for them.” Handscomb added.

Australia XI for the 2nd Ashes Test:

Steven Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.