Bairstow promoted, England unchanged

England have kept the faith with the same XI that lost the Adelaide Test, naming the same side for the third Magellan Ashes Test in Perth, starting on Thursday.

While the personnel is the same, the tourists have announced a change to their batting line-up with Jonny Bairstow elevated to No.6 in the order and allrounder Moeen Ali dropped down to No.7.

Australia will wait until the morning of the match to finalise their XI, with allrounder Mitchell Marsh tipped to take the place of batsman Peter Handscomb.

Bairstow has scored more than 20 in three of his four innings so far in the series, but his low position in the order has seen him stuck manoeuvring the tail on several occasions.

His move up to No.6 will break up the string of left-handers in England's middle order, which has been ruthlessly exposed by off-spinner Nathan Lyon so far in this series.

England will now have a left-right combination through numbers four to eight in the order; Joe Root, Dawid Malan, Bairstow, Moeen and Chris Woakes.

England’s batsmen have struggled to counter the pace of tearaway trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins and the wily spin of Lyon so far in the series, which they currently trail two-nil.

In four innings so far, England’s highest team total is the 302 they scored in the first innings at the Gabba, where Test rookies in opener Mark Stoneman, No.3 James Vince and No.5 Malan posted maiden Ashes half-centuries.

But in the three England innings since, those batsmen have combined to score just 159 runs at 17.67 with Stoneman contributing more than half.

The exclusion of allrounder Ben Stokes due to his involvement in a Bristol brawl in September had thrown the England batting order out of whack, with Moeen promoted to No.6 and Bairstow at No.7 to bat with the tail.

Moeen, in particular, has struggled against Lyon and has been dismissed by his fellow off-spinner in four innings out of four.

The lack of changes to the England side would come as a surprise to former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who last week said the tourists would have to take action at selection in order to stay in the series.

Ponting, though, did forecast the move up the order of Bairstow as one of the changes the tourists might make.

"I think they’ll make a lot of changes for the next Test,” Ponting told cricket.com.au in the wake of the Adelaide Test. "They have to, because what they’ve done so far has not been competitive.

"Stoneman has looked OK but he looks OK then gets out. Vince is a bit the same; they play a couple of nice shots but can’t sustain any kind of period of dominance over the bowlers and have a brain fade and play a bad shot.

"Malan has been the same, he’s occupied the crease but he never looks like he’s going to hurt you.

"And Moeen has looked ineffective with the ball and Nathan Lyon has got his measure.

"They’ve got a lot of areas of concern and I still don’t think their batting line-up is right.

"Even again today, Jonny Baistow looks like their second or third best batsman, as far as I’m concerned, he’s batting at No.7 and with the gloves on." 

England XI: Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson.

Australia XI: David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Peter Handscomb/Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Patrick Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon (team to be announced at the toss)

2017-18 International Fixtures

Magellan Ashes Series

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird.

England Test squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson (vc), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Ben Foakes, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.

First Test Australia won by 10 wickets. Scorecard

Second Test Australia won by 120 runs (Day-Night). Scorecard

Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Tickets

Fifth ODI Perth Stadium, January 28. Tickets

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21