Extra Cover: Inside the highs and lows of Adelaide Test

Steve Smith’s return for the Boxing Day Test has Australia mulling how best to manage a fourth batting order rejig in as many Ashes contests.

After missing the series-clinching victory in Adelaide with an inner-ear issue, Smith is expected to slot back into the No.4 position in Melbourne. The 36-year-old batted for around an hour in the MCG nets at the hosts’ optional training session on Tuesday and showed no signs of the vertigo symptoms that troubled him last week.

“He’s fine. I think it’s pretty familiar what he suffered,” coach Andrew McDonald said. “I think it just depends on when it actually hits you, in terms of how you feel and your balance.

“He wasn’t right to go for that Test match in Adelaide. We gave him every opportunity to get up but he didn’t quite make it.”

Smith is a neat inclusion given Pat Cummins has been ruled out for the series, allowing the deputy to reprise the captaincy after doing the job in the first two Tests.

But it leaves selectors with a difficult call to make after Usman Khawaja’s supreme fill-in role in Adelaide.

McDonald, one member of the three-person selection panel, stressed he is reluctant to break up the Jake Weatherald-Travis Head opening duo Australia were forced into when Khawaja missed the second Test with a back injury.

He also suggested Alex Carey was likely to remain at No.6, a spot the wicketkeeper has impressed in since moving there for the Brisbane Test. Since his promotion, he has peeled off scores of 63, 106 and 72 to be behind only Head among the series’ leading run scorers.

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It leaves Cameron Green, who made 0 and 7 in Adelaide, and Josh Inglis, who has tallies of 23, 31 and 10 from No.7, as possible exclusions in Melbourne. Beau Webster remains in the mix too, especially if Australia do not pick a specialist spinner following Nathan Lyon’s summer-ending injury. Webster can bowl both medium pace and off-spin.

“He hasn’t got the runs that he would like,” McDonald said of Green, the allrounder who has batted at five in the past two Tests and scored 76 runs at 19.00 for the series while chipping in with two wickets.

“I think he’s bowled some important spells for us. His catching in the gully and shot stopping ability there (has been important).

“The returns haven’t been there, but we’ve also seen the capabilities and the upside that he has. He’s an important part of what we’re setting out to achieve in the short term and the long term.

“He’s a very good cricketer, and I’m sure that his next opportunity he’ll be able to show that – whenever that may be.”

What selectors do with Khawaja, dropped in Adelaide and then recalled at the last minute when Smith was ruled out, shapes as arguably their most interesting call.

The left-hander came through for the Aussies with scores of 82 and 40 in the third Test. On Tuesday, he had a long net against assistant coach Dan Vettori throwing left-arm spin in a sign that Australia may be expecting England to play allrounder Jacob Bethell this week.

It could also signal that Khawaja is preparing for a middle-order role where the left-hander would be exposed to more spin than if he returned to his previous opening role.

Australia have already made the decision to shut down Cummins after locking in the urn in Adelaide. But McDonald denied selectors will have one eye to the future when deliberating on Khawaja.

The coach insisted it was irrelevant that he turned 39 last week, with his side having one eye on pushing for a third consecutive in the World Test Championship final appearance.

“I’m not willing to say he will be a lock. But what he’s done is he’s performed really well – 120 runs in that game at late notice,” McDonald said of Khawaja.

“I felt as though he’s back to that attacking sort of play. He got dropped, he had the opportunity on the back of that. He’s still a good player, and age shouldn’t factor into any of our decision making.

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“We’ll pick the best test team, as we’ve always said, against the opponent (for) the surface. It’s the best 11 to play in that Test match – because there’s a lot at stake.

“I still like that opening combination of Weatherald and Head. I think that’s got a nice little dynamic to it. Whether Uz breaks that up, whether he goes into the middle, and then how we shuffle what we’ve got (is yet to be decided).

“But Alex Carey at six, I like what he’s doing there, so my assumption is, and I’ll have a little bit of a say in that, that he’ll stay.”

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men’s Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (fourth Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue