Unchanged Australia look to seal series in Boxing Day Test

Pat Cummins and Dean Elgar

Last year's Boxing Day hero Scott Boland has retained his spot in Australia's bowling attack and will line up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against South Africa beginning on Monday.

"We gave Joshy [Josh Hazlewood] every chance, it just got to a stage where Joshy more than anyone else probably thought he was a bit underdone," Cummins said.

"It's probably the mark of the man that he himself thought, ‘I don't feel quite right' and pulled himself out of selection."

Australia will be looking to secure its first test series win against South Africa on home soil since 2005-06 by going 2-0 up at the MCG.

Veteran opener David Warner will become just the 14th Australian to play 100 tests. The left-hander will be hoping his milestone match brings about some runs in the red-ball format.

South Africa captain Dean Elgar has confirmed at least one change to his side's batting lineup but would not say who is in or out ahead of Monday's toss at the MCG.

"Our build-up in Brisbane was brilliant, we had two weeks that the guys were actually batting quite well," said the opener, who was dismissed for three and two at the Gabba.

"It was a bit of a hiccup that we had [at] the Gabba. But both batting units had that, bar one batsman [Travis Head's 92 for Australia]. Going back to the drawing board, that was the biggest thing for us and trying to simplify things, make guys aware of certain things that they'd maybe forgotten about."

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