Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat against Australia
Retiring Australia opener David Warner will be made to wait after Pakistan captain Shan Masood won the toss and elected to bat in the third Test at the SCG.
Masood had no hesitation to bat in sunny conditions, with turn expected on the dry surface later in the match.
Pakistan made two changes after suffering a painful 79-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test to lose the series. Their hopes of a consolation victory have been made harder without spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has been rested after a heavy workload through the opening two Tests.
Specialist spinner Sajid Khan comes into the team with legspinner Abrar Ahmed remaining unavailable due to a leg injury. Having struggled against Australia’s pace attack, opener Imam-ul-Haq was dropped and replaced by debutant Saim Ayub, who will bat at the top of the order.
Pakistan have lost 16 straight Test matches in Australia, but their last victory in the country was at the SCG in 1995.
A full-strength Australia are again unchanged meaning they will field the same XI for the entire series. All eyes will be on Warner, who will be playing his 112th and final Test match. There has been drama for Warner ahead of his farewell with his baggy green cap going missing in transit.
The traditional New Year’s Test in Sydney has been severely impacted by bad weather in recent years, but the forecast looks mostly clear through the match apart from in the afternoon on day two.
Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan 1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Agha Salman, 8 Hasan Ali, 9 Aamer Jamal, 10 Sajid Khan 11 Mir Hamza