Pakistan have dropped veteran wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed for their Boxing Day Test match. Shan Masood’s team announced a 12-member squad for the second Test match, set to be held at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Pakistan were anyway forced to make changes to their squad due to injuries to Noman Ali and Khurram Shahzad, but they also decided to make a tactical change by bringing in Mohammad Rizwan in place of Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Australia on the other hand chose to name the same playing XI, that had dominated Pakistan at the Optus Stadium in Perth. Pakistan are coming off a heavy 360 loss in the first Test match, where the team put up a poor show overall. Shan Masood’s side would hope to do better in the second Test match and will bank on Rizwan to fire in the middle-order.

“We think Rizwan is ready and we can give Sarfaraz a little bit of a break to recoup and come back,” captain Shan Masood told reporters.

“It was more of a tactical decision in terms of the conditions and getting the best out of each player in those conditions,” he further added.

The change comes after Sarfaraz put up poor scores against Australia in the first Test match. In the first innings of the opening Test match, Sarfaraz was bowled through the gates against a Mitchell Starc inswinger, and in the second innings, also fell to the same bowler.

No Boland at MCG

Australia chose not to bring n Scott Boland, the hometown hero at the MCG, who took an incredible 6/7 on his debut Test match – against England back in the 2021-22 season.

Australia XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Pakistan XII: Imam-Ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Aamir Jamal, Sajid Khan (final team to be confirmed at the coin toss)