Slater axed from Australia's Fifth Test team

Michael Slater has been dropped from Australia's team to play England in the Fifth Test, which begins at The Oval on Thursday.

Or so it seems, after the opening batsman broke ranks today to tell a Sydney radio station that he has been replaced by Justin Langer for the final match of the current series between the teams.

"The powers that be have looked for a change and I've been replaced by Justin Langer," Slater informed listeners of radio station 2WS.

"It's great for him. He's had a disappointing tour and he gets a breath of fresh air at the end of it. But it's hard to take when you've been dropped."

Slater has experienced a mediocre series, amassing 170 runs from seven innings at an average of 24.28. In the last six of those innings, he has produced scores of 25, 4, 15, 12, 21 and 16 and looked uncomfortable against the new ball pairing of Darren Gough and Andy Caddick. After Slater's up-and-down series against West Indies at home last season, and his failure to reach the half-century mark in any of six innings against India on the subcontinent in March, he has now recorded only one century from his last 36 visits to the crease at Test level.

Langer would, nonetheless, be a surprise choice to open the Australians' batting. The Western Australian left hander has scored a total of just 183 runs on the tour, and has not batted since the Australians played a rain-aborted match against Ireland in Belfast early this month. His entire experience of opening at Test level has been confined to scores of 10 and 1 against West Indies in Perth more than eight years ago.

Langer has been a consistent scorer of Test runs in the number three position over recent years, but lost his place in the eleven to fellow Western Australian Damien Martyn as this series commenced. This followed comparatively lean series for him against West Indies (203 runs at an average of 25.37) and India (161 runs at 32.20).

The tour selectors, for their part, are understood to be waiting on the fitness of captain Steve Waugh before finalising the changes to their batting line-up. If the skipper, who now rates himself a 50-50 chance of playing in the match, passes a fitness test, then it seems likely that he will be Slater's replacement and that either Martyn or Simon Katich - neither of whom has significant experience as an opener at first-class level - will partner Matthew Hayden at the top of the order. In that situation, Langer would remain on the sidelines.

When Australia's touring party was named in April, there had been widespread criticism of the selectors' decision to take just two specialist openers to England. With Michael Hussey, Jamie Cox, Jimmy Maher and Greg Blewett all appearing to offer potential as replacements, it was believed that the Australians would call up a player from county ranks if an alternative opening batsman was needed.