Australia chose to bowl vs South Africa

Elgar expected some life early on with ample live grass coverage but was confident the MCG surface would remain good for batting through the day. There is also the prospect of reverse swing later in the game.

Australia's XI is unchanged from the team that won the first Test that they won by six wickets inside two days.

Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Scott Boland

South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar (capt), 2 Sarel Erwee, 3 Theunis de Bruyn, 4 Temba Bavuma, 5 Theunis de Bruyn, 6 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Lungi Ngidi