Australia and South Africa announce playing XIs for World Test Championship Final showdown at Lord’s

Defending champions Australia and South Africa who will play their maiden World Test Championship Final, have announced their playing XIs for the final showdown

Both Australia and South Africa announced their respective playingg XI for the World Test Championship Final 2025. The Final match is scheduled to be played on Wednesday (June 11th) at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Australia has made a surprise decision in their team selection for the World Test Championship final, as they opted not to choose a specialist opener to play with Usman Khawaja. With Cameron Green’s return to the lineup, Marnus Labuschagne will instead take on the role of opener, despite typically batting at number three since his debut in 2019. This will mark the first time Labuschagne has opened the batting in his career.

Travis Head will return to bat at number five for Australia in the World Test Championship final, despite the fact that he opened during the Sri Lanka series. Despite strong performances in first-class cricket, Sam Kontas has missed out on selection for the final.

Despite his impressive performance against India, Scott Boland won’t be part of Australia’s playing XI for the World Test Championship final. Instead, the team will rely on their experienced pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood, along with spinner Nathan Lyon. Beau Webster will take on the role of a pace-bowling all-rounder, while Cameron Green will focus solely on batting, coming in at number three, and won’t bowl due to his recent recovery from back surgery.

South Africa’s lineup has no major surprises, with Wiaan Mulder included to give them four pace-bowling options. Mulder could potentially bat at number three. Lungi Ngidi has been chosen over Dane Paterson, while Corbin Bosch misses out despite his recent impressive performances against Pakistan.

Australia playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

South Africa playing XI: Temba Bavuma (c), Aiden Markram , Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder, Tristan Stubbs, David Bedingham, Kyle Verrynne, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.

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