Symonds to play at Perth

Andrew Symonds has been named in Australia's starting 11 for the third Test beginning at Perth on Thursday. Adam Voges, who was in the original 13-man squad, has been left out and Mitchell Johnson will be 12th man.

Symonds, who will play his 11th Test match, has been listed to bat at No.6, with Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke each moving up one spot in the order. Ricky Ponting said there was no reason Symonds could not permanently hold down a place in the team. "I am pretty confident in him actually," Ponting told AFP. "I have watched him pretty closely over the last few days.

"He might have thought his Test career has passed him on, but he is really excited about being back in the team again and right now he feels better about his game than he probably ever has before. We all know what a great talent he is and he hasn't shown it at Test level yet, hopefully over the next few days we will see some of that."

Ponting said Symonds' ability to bowl both medium pace and offspin - which he did with success for Queensland in a Pura Cup match at the WACA last month - would be vital. "He was the pick of the bowlers on a wicket that might have been pretty similar," Ponting said.

"It will give Shane [Warne] a chance to have a bit more of a rest, and probably Glenn [McGrath] at different times. We are going to need some guys to bowl a number of overs up into the wind and Symo will probably give us that."

Australia 1 Justin Langer, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Glenn McGrath.