RORY BURNS has been dumped by England after his horrific start to The Ashes.
Opener Burns will be replaced by Zak Crawley for the Boxing Day Test and his Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope gives way to Jonny Bairstow.
Burns was clean bowled by the first ball of The Ashes and his fortunes have hardly improved since then.
Scores of 0, 13, 4, 34 and his quirky technique have been mocked by many pundits.
He also let off David Warner in the Brisbane First Test by dropping an easy chance.
England considered excluding Haseeb Hameed instead of Burns, 31.
But the tour management opted to keep Hameed because he is seven years younger.
After scoring 267 against Pakistan at Southampton in 2020, Crawley averages just 11 in Test cricket this year.
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But he has made some technical changes designed to eliminate his habit of nicking catches.
And he has looked more assured than most in England’s net sessions.
Pope scored 35 in the first innings of the series but has recorded 4, 5 and 4 since then.
His batting has also become increasingly frenetic and agitated.
Bairstow’s performances in Test cricket nose-dived in recent years but he did score a century on the previous Ashes tour in 2017-18.
He is expected to be preferred at No 6 to the less-experienced Dan Lawrence.
Australia coach Justin Langer suggested Mitchell Starc will play his third Ashes Test in quick succession but Josh Hazlewood will again miss out with a minor side strain.
Starc, 31, has bowled more than 75 overs in the series and felt twinges in his back last time out.
Captain Pat Cummins should return in Melbourne and Victoria’s Scott Boland has been added.
