This is the end: Khawaja left out of third Test

PL reports on two changes to the Australian side

Usman Khawaja’s unfortunate final Ashes campaign continues with news he will not be recalled for the third Test, after he broke down in the first and was unfit for the second. Travis Head will continue to open, and Josh Inglis will hold his place at No.7 in Adelaide.

In other selection news: Pat Cummins returns from the injury that kept him from the first two matches, while Nathan Lyon resumes after being left out for the pink ball match. Brendon Doggett and Michael Neser are the two who will miss out, the latter after taking a five-wicket haul in the third innings at Brisbane.

England made one change, bringing in Josh Tongue for Gus Atkinson.

Khawaja remains with the squad and continues to train, but his only realistic chance of return would be if someone is injured or someone like Inglis has a dramatic loss of form.

Steve Smith phoned in sick on Monday’s main training day, but the master batter was back at his desk (in the nets) on the eve of the match.

In all likelihood, Khawaja’s next appearance will be waving to fans with his daughters on his lap as a sponsor’s car does a lap of the SCG, but the 38-year-old is adamant he has no plans to retire.

A lap of the oval is not a walk-off-to-a-standing-applause-after-making-a-hundred fairy tale finish, but it’s better than most get, and Khawaja concedes that everything since 2019, when he was dropped during the away Ashes, has been a bonus.

Travis Head’s century at the top of the order, filling in for Khawaja in the second innings of the first Test, encouraged a dramatic shift in philosophy from a team that had banked on Khawaja’s steady hand since his return to the side during the 2021-22 Ashes.