Australia are considering playing a Test without a frontline spinner for the first time in 11 years in a bid to squeeze Mitch Marsh and Cameron Green into the same side.
The tourists will wait to determine their team for Wednesday’s fourth Ashes Test, with David Warner all but certain to open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja.
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Josh Hazlewood is likely to return in place of Scott Boland, as Australia go full throttle at trying to win their first Ashes series in England since 2001 with victory at Old Trafford.
But the week-long debate around Marsh and Green’s position remains, after the former scored a century filling in for the injured allrounder (hamstring) at Headingley.
There has been speculation for the past week that the pair could both feature at the expense of Warner, whose double failure in the Headingley loss dropped his series average to 23.5.
However, captain Pat Cummins said it was highly unlikely the top order would change.
“We’ll chat about it but I imagine (the opening pairing) will stay the same,” Cummins said.
“Dave’s been going really well. At Lord’s he was really impressive.
“Last week, like many of us, he probably didn’t contribute as much as he would have liked with the bat
“He’s been out there over the last couple of days putting in a lot of work.
“This tour he has shown a lot of good signs and hasn’t quite kicked on to make that big score.
“But some of those innings he’s played under really tough circumstances has made it easy for (Steve) Smith to come in and score runs, or the like.”
With Warner’s place appearing safe, the man now at risk of being squeezed is spinner Todd Murphy.
The 22-year-old Victorian was only used for 9.3 overs across two innings at Headingley, and Travis Head spent as much time bowling spin in the nets as Murphy at training on Monday.
Australia have not gone without a frontline spinner since the WACA Test against India in January 2012, with the vast majority of the 117 matches since then including Nathan Lyon.
But Cummins insisted he would be comfortable entering a Test without a spinner if required.
Playing into the debate is that rain is forecast for days four and five at Old Trafford, while cloudy skies and rain have persisted in the lead up to the Test – conditions generally favourable to seam.
“Every situation is different,” Cummins said.
“We’ve played games with one quick, we’ve played some games with heaps of quicks. It’s all really conditions based.
“As I said last week about Toddy, I would have loved to bowl him a bit more but there wasn’t a heap of overs in the game, the ball seemed to swing and seam a little bit.
“So that’s certainly something to weigh up this week.”
Cummins’ comments came as England tweaker Moeen Ali warned Australia against going without Murphy on a wicket that historically spins.
“You have to play a spinner in a Test match no matter where it is, in my opinion, but Old Trafford especially,” Moeen, who averages 18.5 at the ground with the ball, said.
“Todd’s good. He looks really good, he’s got really good potential and I’m sure he’s going to bowl a lot more here.”
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