Oz go full pace!

Pacer Mitchell Starc during Australia’s practice session at the MCG on Wednesday. Pics/Getty Images

Australia will take an all-pace attack into the fourth Ashes Test, skipper Steve Smith said Thursday, while Josh Inglis was dropped with selectors preferring Usman Khawaja.

The hosts head into the Boxing Day Test with an unassailable 3-0 lead over England, but are without pace spearhead Pat Cummins and veteran spinner Nathan Lyon. Cummins is being managed after his return in the third Adelaide Test after a lengthy lay off with a lower back injury and will play no further part in the Ashes. Lyon had surgery this week for a torn hamstring and faces a long recovery. Todd Murphy was called up as cover for Lyon, but Smith said they had opted for a pace attack given the "quite furry" surface at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. "We're going to be playing four quicks and no spinner. [The pitch] has 10 millimetres of grass, quite furry, quite green," he said.

Steve Smith

"I dare say it's going to offer quite a bit, particularly if [Day One] is similar conditions to today, quite cold and overcast, so I dare say there's going to be quite a bit of movement.

"You just got to play what surface you're presented with," he added. "This one looks like it's going to offer a fair bit of assistance for the seam bowlers, and the weather throughout the week looks conducive for that too."

Australia named a 12-man squad with a final decision on who leads the attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland to be made at the toss. One of Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, or Brendan Doggett will miss out.

Smith, who captained Australia in the first two Tests during Cummins's absence, said he was fully recovered and feeling "100 per cent" fit. "I was watching in the hotel those first two days [in Adelaide] and wished I could have been out there, but it was the right call at that stage because I was struggling," he said of his vertigo, an issue that has plagued him before.

Eight
No. of Boxing Day Tests Australia have lost at the MCG since 1968

Seven
No. of times England have been bowled out for under 100 at the MCG, most recently in their last Test here (68 in 2021)

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