speaking to reporters at the MCG on Monday morning<\/a>, McDonald cautioned against experimenting with the team line-up in Sydney next week, resisting the temptation to blood younger players ahead of the packed 2026\/27 schedule. Although the series finale is effectively a dead rubber, he stressed that World Test Championship points were still up for grabs in the New South Wales capital.<\/p>\n\u201cWTC is something that we aim and strive for,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Test match is vitally important, and we like to think we just pick the best Test team for that surface based upon that opponent, because the WTC is something that is held in such high regard by this group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to be consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald also emphasised the team\u2019s recent success, questioning whether it was necessary to swing the axe when Australia has won six of its seven matches during the current World Test Championship cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 3-1 up in the series, so this group\u2019s been able to perform at a high level once again,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there\u2019s always going to be pressure zeroed in on certain individuals, and the media \u2013 being the people in the room \u2013 like to always zero in on one or two and really push to potentially get a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you\u2019re 3-1 up and you\u2019ve played pretty good cricket and you got it slightly wrong on a surface that was tricky, what do you do? I suppose that\u2019s the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys can speculate around that. We\u2019ll make decisions based on the surface (in Sydney).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to back our players and I think we\u2019ve shown that over a period of time that they\u2019ve got our support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll try to make the right decisions in the process we\u2019ve worked through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fallout from Boxing Day test continues | 02:43<\/p>\n
Khawaja, who turned 39 earlier this month, has averaged 21.23 since the start of June\u2019s World Test Championship final, with growing speculation on whether the New Year\u2019s Test would be his final international appearance in Australia. However, McDonald reiterated the Queenslander had given \u201cno indication\u201d on when he would retire from the game\u2019s longest format.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis performance in this calendar year has been good enough to warrant selection,\u201d McDonald said of Khawaja.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say he\u2019d be there, marking centre in Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald also confirmed that barring any late mishaps, Starc would play in Sydney next week, making it 27 consecutive Test appearances for the tall left-armed quick, a remarkable feat considering his age and Australia\u2019s packed calendar.<\/p>\n
Albeit unlikely, McDonald backed the 35-year-old to continue that streak through to next summer, where Australia is scheduled to play at least 18 Tests across a chaotic ten-month window.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically you would say realistically it\u2019s not possible as a fast bowler to get through that, but is it possible with Mitchell Starc? I think it is,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to play five Test matches again this summer, so it\u2019s incredible, and there\u2019s been some shortened Test matches that have helped that also.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia controversially sidelined spinner Todd Murphy for the Boxing Day Test due to the seam-friendly conditions, a decision that was validated by the two-day outcome, but McDonald stressed the brave selection call was an \u201coutlier\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a lot for us to not pick a spinner, and we have been pushed into making that decision,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cRed-ball games, that\u2019s the first time in a long time that we haven\u2019t picked a spinner. It\u2019s not something that we like doing. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something that will happen moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quizzed on whether Murphy would earn a recall in Sydney next week, McDonald declared: \u201cI\u2019d love to pick Todd. I\u2019d love to see what he\u2019s got to offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think he\u2019s back to his best, and what we\u2019ve seen when he\u2019s come closer to the camp has been excellent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to pick him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aussie batters say they underperformed | 02:49<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, McDonald floated the possibility of elevating wicketkeeper Alex Carey to No. 5 in the batting order, explaining that his recent promotion to No. 6 was \u201creward for the performance he had over a period of time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought that Adam Gilchrist should have batted higher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably a little bit of my belief that the wicketkeeper is a batter, and that a left-hander at No. 6 and the attacking nature at No. 6 gave us a different dynamic, and I think it\u2019s contributed to some of the success we had in those first three games.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers are more versed in moving around because of white-ball cricket as well, and we\u2019ve been on the record that batting orders aren\u2019t a strong belief of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since returning from back surgery at the start of the year, Green has averaged 21.42 in the Test arena<\/a>, subsequently slipping from No. 3 to No. 7 in the line-up. McDonald confessed the West Australian, who still hasn\u2019t notched a half-century this summer, had failed to cement his spot in the Test side.<\/p>\n\u201cHe fits around others at the moment,\u201d McDonald declared.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t nailed down a spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green\u2019s struggles have opened the door for fellow all-rounder Beau Webster to potentially return to the Test side next week, with McDonald confessing the Tasmanian was \u201cunlucky\u201d to miss selection for the first four matches of the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice problem to have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to debate selection. They\u2019re going to debate where Cameron\u2019s at at this point in time and how he fits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we\u2019ve got a quality player (in Webster) sitting there waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a batting order that we\u2019d like to think can function at a higher capacity, so we\u2019ll be having conversations leading into Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fifth and final Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at the SCG on January 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian head coach Andrew McDonald has hinted there won\u2019t be wholesale changes to the team\u2019s starting XI for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-378748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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