Usman Khawaja to open for Australia in Hobart as Marcus Harris loses his place

Khawaja, who hit twin hundreds on his return to the team in the fourth game of the ongoing Ashes series, had expected to be dropped for the returning Travis Head at Hobart this week

Usman Khawaja has retained his place in the Australia Test side at the expense of Marcus Harris.

Khawaja, who hit twin hundreds on his return to the team in the fourth game of the ongoing Ashes series, had expected to be dropped for the returning Travis Head at Hobart this week.

However, on Thursday captain Pat Cummins confirmed that the 35-year-old would instead jump up to open the innings, with Harris dropping out of the side.

"I think he [Harris] knew it was coming, but the message to Harry is that it's going really well. He's certainly part of our future and we’ll keep investing in him," the skipper said.

Harris averaged 29.83 in his seven innings against England during the Ashes campaign.

^{Marcus Harris drops out of the Australia team at Hobart (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)}

"He's been really good and growing with each game," Cummins said.

"Ussie and Davey (Warner) have really earned their spots but the reality is they're both 35 years old and there will be a day when we need to find some other openers. Marcus has a big future with us."

Khawaja, who averages nearly 100 when opening in Tests for Australia, had gone on the record after his two centuries in the draw in Sydney to say he was resolved to missing out because of the Australian selectors' desire to show loyalty to incumbents.

In reality, though, it was incredibly difficult for him to be excluded given his dominance and control in both innings at the SCG.

He only got the opportunity because of Head's positive Covid-19 test - Head returns at No.5 in Tasmania.

"It's not too often someone comes in and hits two hundreds in the same game," Cummins said.

"For sure, this was more a case of someone demanding a spot as opposed to Marcus losing it."

^{Australia are waiting on the fitness of Scott Boland (Steve Bell/Getty Images)}

Australia, meanwhile, are waiting to discover whether Scott Boland will be fit for the game.

Boland, whose first two matches in the Test arena have brought 14 wickets at an average below 9, suffered a minor rib injury at the SCG but trained as normal on Thursday and appears on course to take part in Hobart.

"He'll just have a bowl and judge it. He feels a little bit better than he did a few days ago," Cummins said. "He bowled 30-40 overs [in Sydney] after he did the injury, which gives us a lot of confidence he can get through it.

"He said it's an injury he is confident doesn't get worse with heaps of bowling, it's just a lot of pain. So hopefully he can manage that. He's played enough, he'll be honest."

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