Kallis and MacGill push for places, but doubts over Kemp

Justin Kemp, whose obdurate batting helped Jacques Rudolph to save the Perth Test, could miss the Boxing Day game with a niggling shoulder injury. Kemp had not trained for the past two days and was rated as a 50-50 chance despite intensive treatment from the medical staff. He faced a fitness test on Christmas day.

Kemp waited 47 Tests for a recall, and his uncharacteristically dogged knock at the WACA included a titanic tussle with Shane Warne, who had quickly dubbed Kemp 'Darryl' and adopted him as his new bunny. If Kemp managed to prove his fitness, he was likely to face a two-prong legspin attack, with Stuart MacGill expected to link up with Warne at the MCG.

Meanwhile Jacques Kallis, South Africa's most respected batsman, was confident of recovering for the biggest date on the Australian cricket calendar. Both sides head into the Boxing Day Test predicting changes and the tourists are desperate for Kallis to play after he missed the drawn match in Perth.

Kallis has batted in the nets in Melbourne this week and said his injured elbow would have to heal fully for him to be picked. "We'll see how things go for the next few days but I'm pretty confident that I'll be 100%," Kallis said in The Australian. "I don't know if it is an injury you can take in 90% because if you tear it again you're out again."

After three weeks of being under pressure with poor warm-up results and injuries, the South Africans enter the match in a buoyant mood following the hard-fought draw in Perth on Tuesday. "The momentum seems to be with us and Australia is feeling the pressure," Kallis said. "They should have knocked us over but we survived. It's a huge turning stone for a lot of guys' careers the way they played there."

The MCG drop-in wicket is expected to suit the fast bowlers but MacGill is determined and pleaded his case in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Personally, I would expect to play here, particularly seeing as we failed to bowl them out in Perth," MacGill said. "Conditions may have conspired against the bowlers there but you always wonder whether it would have been the same if I were there.

"Whilst it's a slow transition, I think the public and cricket in general is starting to come around to the fact that you need to bowl your most potent wicket-taking team to win Test matches against sides that are prepared to stick around. Providing your team with wicket-taking opportunities is what I'm about."

MacGill is battling for a place with the left-arm swing of Nathan Bracken and Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, was pleased with his performance at the WACA, where he dismissed Graeme Smith twice. "Regardless of the surface here I'm confident and satisfied in making a claim for a position in this 11," MacGill said. "I think I can provide Ricky Ponting with extra wicket-taking opportunities, even on a green-top."