Nathan Lyon has been left out of Australia’s Test team for the first time in 12 years with selectors opting for a four-man pace attack in the side’s first ever day-night Test overseas.
Scott Boland has been recalled for the pink-ball series finale in Jamaica, the first time he has played alongside all three of captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the same XI.
Having already secured the Frank Worrell Trophy with wins in the first two Tests in Barbados and Grenada, Cummins’ side will be out to sweep West Indies with victory in the third Test at Kingston’s Sabina Park.
West Indies XI: Mikyle Louis, John Campbell, Kevlon Anderson, Brandon King, Shai Hope (wk), Roston Chase (c), Justin Greaves, Jomel Warrican, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales
Australia XI: Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland
Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first, with West Indies also making three changes for the series finale.
“Nathan Lyon misses out for Scotty Boland; pink ball so we think it’s a little bit different to a normal Test,” the Aussie skipper said at the toss.
Left-armer Mitchell Starc has been named for his 100th cap, joining Glenn McGrath as the only two Australian fast bowlers to play 100 Test matches for the country.
Boland took a player-of-the-match 10-wicket haul in his last Test in January to help Australia reclaim Border-Gavaskar Trophy from India, but missed out in Sri Lanka when only one fast bowler was required.
Hazlewood’s return from injury then saw the Victorian narrowly edged out of a spot in the XI for the World Test Championship final.
Lyon, who last missed a Test through selection rather than injury in the 2013 Ashes when Ashton Agar was picked ahead of him, bowled just one over in his most recent pink-ball appearance in Adelaide last summer, with Boland also playing in that match and taking 2-54 and 3-51 in Australia’s 10-wicket win over India.
The pink ball to be used in Jamaica is also different from the Kookaburra version for home day-night Tests, with West Indies’ switching to English-branded Dukes balls that are specifically designed for abrasive Caribbean pitches more than a decade ago.
Opener Usman Khawaja is the only player in the Australian squad to play in a match using a pink Dukes ball during a county game for Glamorgan in 2018, with reports from training leading up to the third Test indicating it will stay harder than the Kookaburra ball and therefore provide more assistance to the quicks on a Sabina Park surface featuring live green grass for the first time this series.
West Indies’ middle and lower order had also made an effort to attack Lyon in the first two Tests in Barbados and Grenada with his economy rate of 5.08 the highest it has ever been in a bilateral series.
He’d also been hit for 14 sixes by West Indies batters, the fourth most of any series he’s played, while his percentage of runs conceded via boundaries (75.2) is the highest of his career.
Lyon’s omission means he will have to wait until at least the Ashes opener in Perth in late November to go past McGrath into second place on Australia’s all-time Test wicket-takers list having drawn within one of the legendary paceman’s 563 scalps with six wickets in the second Test in Grenada.
The last time the 37-year-old off-spinner missed a Test in favour of four quicks was at the WACA Ground in 2012 against India, though Australia did opt for two pace-bowling allrounders, Mitch Marsh and Cameron Green, in Manchester during the 2023 Ashes when the off-spinner had a calf injury and Todd Murphy was the bowler to miss out.
Meanwhile, West Indies have dropped 100-Test veteran Kraigg Brathwaite with Mikyle Louis recalled to partner John Campbell at the top, while Kevlon Anderson makes his debut at No.3 in place of Keacy Carty.
Left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican also comes back in to replace fast bowler Anderson Phillip.
Despite extending their hold on the Frank Worrell Trophy past 30 years after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in Grenada, the series finale is anything but a dead rubber with 12 more valuable WTC points on offer for winning the third Test.
Qantas Tour of the West Indies
First Test: Australia won by 159 runs
Second Test: Australia won by 133 runs
Third Test: July 12-16, Kingston, Jamaica (4.30am AEST)
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
West Indies Test squad: Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales
First T20I: July 20, Kingston, Jamaica (July 21, 11am AEST)
Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 11am AEST)
Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)
Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)
Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)
West Indies T20 squad: TBC
Australia’s T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa
