Australia unchanged for Melbourne

Andrew Symonds has retained his place in Australia's squad despite a lean game with the bat at Perth after Australia named an unchanged line-up for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. Rather than choosing a 13-man outfit, Australia have selected the same 11 who won the third Test plus Mitchell Johnson, who was 12th man.

Symonds managed scores of only 26 and 2 at Perth but picked up two handy wickets in England's first innings. His cause was helped when Shane Watson re-injured his hamstring three overs into his return to bowling in Queensland's Pura Cup match on Saturday, putting him out of contention. The selectors decided against tampering with the group that regained the Ashes, despite several other batsmen pushing strong cases for selection.

Among those overlooked were the two leading run-scorers in the Pura Cup in 2006-07, Western Australia's Chris Rogers and Victoria's Brad Hodge, who has missed out on the chance to play his second Test at his home ground. Adam Voges, who was in Australia's original 13-man squad for the Perth Test, has also been left out.

Australia squad Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath.