Australia dropped Usman Khawaja on Tuesday for the fourth Ashes Test against England at Old Trafford, with the struggling batsman making way for Steve Smith's return. Selectors named a 12-man squad for the Test beginning Wednesday, with David Warner and Marcus Harris as openers but leaving out Khawaja, who has averaged just 20.33 in six innings in the series batting at number three.

Leading batsman Smith, who suffered concussion after being hit on the head by Jofra Archer in the drawn second Test at Lord's, returns after sitting out Australia's agonising one-wicket loss at Headingley, which levelled the five-match series 1-1 with two Tests to play. Smith, on top of the latest ICC Test batting rankings published Tuesday, has scored 378 runs at an average of 126 in three innings in the series and was back on the field in last week's tour match against Derbyshire. The 32-year-old Khawaja scored 72 opening the batting against Derbyshire, but it was not enough to convince selectors to keep him in the side. Meanwhile Marnus Labuschagne, who became Test cricket's first concussion substitute when replacing Smith at Lord's, has seized on his unexpected chance to make three successive Ashes fifties.