Unchanged Australia bowl first in Warner's 100th Test

Australia chose to bowl vs South Africa

South Africa’s batting line-up was asked to front up for the second successive Test after Pat Cummins put them in to bat on a pitch much less green than the Gabba’s a week ago. Whether Cummins’ decision was motivated by losing four wickets in the successful chase in Brisbane or not, Dean Elgar was surprised, but pleased, at being asked to bat and would have wanted to get runs on the board first anyway.

Elgar expected some life early on with ample live grass coverage but was confident the MCG surface would remain good for batting through the day. There is also the prospect of reverse swing later in the game.

Despite being bowled out for under 200 in their last six Test innings, South Africa did not make any changes to their team composition and stuck to their formula of six specialist batters and five bowlers. They did, however, make a switch in the top-order. Rassie van der Dussen, who returned from a broken finger for the Brisbane match, was left out in favour of Theunis de Bruyn, who is playing his first Test in three years.

Cummins’ decision means David Warner will have to wait to take centre stage in his 100th Test. Warner becomes the 14th Australian to reach the landmark and plays the match on the back of a period of lean form – he averages just over 20 in Test cricket this year.

Australia’s XI is unchanged from the team that won the first Test that they won by six wickets inside two days.

Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Scott Boland

South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar (capt), 2 Sarel Erwee, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 Temba Bavuma, 5 Theunis de Bruyn, 6 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Lungi Ngidi

This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.

Unchanged Australia bowl first in Warner’s 100th Test

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