With 34 players chosen for an all-format tour that also includes an ‘A’ squad, Australia will be near to full strength for all three legs of their Sri Lankan campaign in June-July. Marcus Harris was the most notable absentee from the 16-man Test team that will play two matches in Galle to round up a seven-week trip, but the opener, along with a slew of other peripheral players, will get the chance to make their cases in the ‘A’ series. Here in this article, we talk about Australia Test Squad for Sri Lanka.
Despite the rumors and pleas for him to be selected for Test matches, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell will remain a white-ball player, as Cricket Australia (CA) unveiled their teams for the multi-format, five-week tour to Sri Lanka.
First-choice spinner Adam Zampa will miss the whole tour owing to the upcoming birth of his first child, while Test skipper Pat Cummins will sit out the three-T20I series to open the tour. Ben McDermott, who made his maiden international century against Pakistan in a 50-over match last month, has been left out of the squad and will instead play county cricket for Hampshire in the UK, while Michael Neser, who plays for Glamorgan, has also been left out.
Jhye Richardson’s inclusion for only the T20 leg of the series is a setback for the whippy fast, who shone in his sole Test last summer before selectors took a cautious approach owing to injury. In the two four-day games for Australia A in Hambantota, Richardson, along with other peripheral players like Josh Inglis, Scott Boland, and Sean Abbott, might still make a case for inclusion in the Test series.
Andrew McDonald will lead the team for the first time after being named Justin Langer’s permanent successor after serving as an interim coach in Pakistan. Inglis has been named in all three of Australia’s main groups, as well as the A squad, indicating the squads’ possible interchangeability.
Travis Head (in the Test, ODI, and A squads), Boland (in the Test and A squads), and Abbott (in the T20 and A squads) are all in the same boat. “It’s extremely exciting to have an Australia A component, which allows players to be available for and cross over into all teams,” said Australia’s selection manager George Bailey.
After playing in Pakistan, pacemen Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Ellis, and Ben Dwarshuis have all pulled out of the white-ball teams, while Kane Richardson has returned to the T20 squad after missing the Pakistan trip due to a hamstring injury.
The most prominent newcomers to the A team are Aaron Hardie, Henry Hunt, Matthew Kuhnemann, Todd Murphy, and Tanveer Sangha, who have all performed well at home. Matthew Renshaw, Nic Maddinson, Peter Handscomb, Josh Philippe, Mark Steketee, and Jhye Richardson will lead the reserve side, which will also play two one-dayers in Colombo.
Harris misses Test squad while Maxwell again misses out on Australia Test for Sri Lanka series
