The Ashes: Mitchell Starc set to be fit to face England at MCG; Australia stick with opener Marcus Harris

Australia head coach Justin Langer backs out-of-form opener Marcus Harris to come good as he confirms left-hander will keep his place for the Boxing Day Ashes Test against England; Langer expects Mitchell Starc to be fit and hails the way left-arm seamer led bowling attack in Adelaide

Image: Mitchell Starc is expected to be fit for the Boxing Day Test after tweaking his rib in Adelaide

Justin Langer expects pace bowler Mitchell Starc to be fit for the Boxing Day Ashes Test against England and has also confirmed that opener Marcus Harris will keep his place in the Australia side.

Starc tweaked his rib while batting during Australia's second innings in Adelaide - but then went on to bowl 27 overs and pick up the wickets of Joe Root and Ollie Pope as the hosts bundled England out for 192 to take a 2-0 series lead.

Head coach Langer was impressed with how Starc led the attack in the absence of Pat Cummins (Covid isolation) and Josh Hazlewood (side strain) and believes the left-armer will be ready for the MCG Test, at which Australia will retain The Ashes if they avoid defeat.

Image: Starc took six wickets in the pink-ball Test against England

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is Harris' home stadium and he will be hoping familiar surroundings can inspire an upturn in form with the left-hander having scored 38 runs in four innings in the series so far and his Test average after 12 games a disappointing 22.19.

On Starc, Langer said: "He should be fine. He's tough. If he's not right, then we'll look at it. But at this stage, there's no indication suggesting he won't be playing the next Test.

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"I'd be very surprised if he doesn't get up for Boxing Day. We will wait and see how Hazlewood pulls up.

"I honestly thought Starc was almost the man of the match last game. He became the leader of the group.

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"There's been a lot of talk about Mitch Starc for the last few years but he just keeps turning up. He's an unbelievable athlete and he's incredibly fit.

"His resilience to just keep coming up over and over and over again is remarkable really, and his consistency of length and the way he controlled the tempo of the game last game was a great credit to him, particularly with Patty (Cummins) and Hazlewood not playing."

Australia confident Harris will come good

Image: Australia opener Marcus Harris will play at the MCG, despite struggling for runs in the series so far

Usman Khawaja has been retained in Australia's squad for the final three Tests - the Boxing Day game is followed by matches at Sydney from January 5 and Hobart from January 14 - but Langer says he will keep faith in Harris as David Warner's opening partner for now.

On Harris, Langer added: "He'll play in the Test, no worries about that. This is his home ground and he's played a lot at the MCG. He hasn't made the runs he'd like to so far, but he dominates domestic cricket.

"We like to back our players in where we can. He showed glimpses in Test cricket so far, and we're hopeful that he'll keep kicking on and keep getting better. It's a tough, tough gig Test cricket.

"We're really confident Marcus has got what it takes to be a successful Australian opening batsman

"What we see in the nets, what we see in domestic cricket all adds up to what is potentially a very good Test career. Let's hope he starts that off again on Boxing Day."

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