Ashes 2021-22: Broad returns for England, Khawaja replaces Head as teams announce squad for Sydney Test

England and Australia have announced their playing XIs for the fourth Ashes Test match in Sydney, starting on Wednesday (January 5). Both teams have made just one change to the squad. The visitors have named Stuart Broad in place of Ollie Robinson, while the hosts have named Usman Khawaja instead of Travis Head who tested positive for COVID-19. Australia have already bagged the series after their comprehensive wins in the three Test matches. 

England have now lost a staggering 12 Test matches in Australia since their win in the 2010-2011 series. The Joe Root-led side have hardly challenged the hosts in the series. Barring Joe Root and Dawid Malan, no other batter has offered any sort of resistance to the Australian bowling which is the main reason for their pale show in the series.

Meanwhile, Australia have found different heroes in all of their Test wins. Travis Head, David Warner, Steve Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne have performed well with the bat, while Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, and Scott Boland have been phenomenal with the ball in hand. Even the absence of senior pacer Josh Hazlewood was hardly felt by the hosts as Michael Nesar, Richardson, and Boland more than made up for him by taking regular wickets.

Australia XI: Marcus Harris, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

England XI: Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Mark Wood, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson