The ongoing Test series between Australia and England will have its fourth test on Wednesday, the 5th of January. The match will be conducted at the Sydney Cricket Ground. English players' performance has led them to lose the series as Australia had already won the initial three Tests on their home grounds. There is nothing left in this series for English players apart from saving their self respect.
Australia
If the Aussies manage to beat England in the remaining two Tests, it would be considered as a whitewash, and would be very insulting for the England team. Given the conditions, the bad performance of the English players and the exceptional performance of the Kangaroos, it might happen that England lose its remaining Tests. Their bowling has been phenomenal, the Aussies barred the England batsmen on just 68 runs in the previous test's second innings to win their third consecutive test match.
Mitchell Starc has been the highest wicket-taker so far with 14 wickets in 3 matches. Skipper Pat Cummins has 10 wickets in his name, Chris Green and Nathan Lyon have taken 7 and 12 wickets, respectively. Overall, the bowlers have impressed the fans too much so far in the series.
England
England were bowled out for 185 and 68 in the two innings of the last match, respectively. None of the English players except Root and Malan crossed the 50-run mark in this series so far. Senior players Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler will have to take more responsibility with the bat to score big in the remaining two matches.
England's most experienced bowler James Anderson took 7 wickets in the series so far which is not quite impressive. Another fast bowler Ollie Robinson took manages to take 9 wickets.
Weather Report
The minimum and maximum temperatures at Sydney will be around 21 and 28 degrees, respectively. It will be cloudy on all the five days of the match in Sydney. The rain might disrupt the match, but it is not expected to rain too much. Hence, we can enjoy the match all day and the result of this match may not be affected by the rain.
Pitch Report
The pitch at Sydney tends to help the batsmen more than the bowlers during the initial phase of the game. Batsmen can take advantage of this pitch for the first three days. 600 scores have also been scored in the first innings here. The pitch will help the spinners after three days. Fast bowlers can take advantage of the morning session. After winning the toss, the teams would love to bat first.
Probable Playing XI for Australia
Marcus Harris, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
Probable Playing Xi for England
Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Mark Wood, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson
Key Players:
Australia:
David Warner
Marnus Labuschagne
England:
Dawid Malan
Joe Root
