Phillip Hughes has been dropped by Australia for the third Ashes Test, while wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is also out with a broken finger.
Watson and Manou come into Australia XI at Edgbaston
Opening batsman Phillip Hughes has been dropped by Australia for the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston, while wicketkeeper Brad Haddin also misses out after breaking his finger in the pre-match warm-up.
An exclusive report in
The Australian newspaper revealed the out-of-form Hughes would be left out of the side to face England in favour of Shane Watson
That story was then confirmed by Hughes, who has managed scores of 36, four and 17 in the first two Tests, on his Twitter page.
"(I'm) disappointed not to be on the field with the lads today, will be supporting the guys. It's a big Test match for us," the left-hander said on the social-networking site.
Miscalculation
Hughes' agent Neil D'Costa later took responsibility for the news coming out before Australia had officially named their team, claiming he had miscalculated time differences.
"I look after the Twitter for Phillip and we were certainly under the impression (the timing was okay) because of the time change," D'Costa told
Sky Sports News.
"I'm in India and I was dealing with all the stuff through Australia. Unfortunately I am probably the fool in this situation."
D'Costa added: "How our situation works is we get the Twitter from Phillip and I feed them into our IT guy."
Despite the blunder, D'Costa thinks Hughes is unlikely to be punished by the Australia team management.
He said: "I don't think anything there was that much of a secret. The team were looking to make some changes to suit the conditions so I don't think there was anything that was too big a surprise.
"I spoke to Cricket Australia, they are very supportive of what players do on and off the field. They know this was an innocent situation."
Manou debut
Australia were forced into a second change after Haddin suffered a finger injury just before play was due to start.
South Australian gloveman Graham Manou was brought in for his Test debut after the tourists sought, and received, permission from England to change the line-up that was named at the toss.
Heavy rain in the Birmingham area in the lead-up to the game left the Edgbaston groundstaff working overtime to get the outfield in acceptable condition.
Umpires Rudi Koertzen and Aleem Dar held several inspections before deciding play could start at 5pm.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and opted to bat first, sending out a makeshift opening pair of Watson and Simon Katich to face the new ball.
The only change to England's starting XI was the return of Ian Bell on his home ground in place of Kevin Pietersen, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the series following Achilles surgery.
