Courtesy: Cricket Australia
The Australian national selection committee, headed by George Bailey, announced the 15-member squad for the final two Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test series against India, which will be played in Melbourne and Sydney at the turn of the year. While Josh Hazlewood was left out of the squad due to a calf injury sustained in the third Test in Brisbane, the omission of opener Nathan McSweeney was a bit of a surprise in favour of teenage sensation Sam Konstas.
Notably, if Sam Konstas receives a Australia in the fourth BGT Test on Boxing Day, December 26, then he will be youngest debutant for the hosts in the longest format of the game since current captain Pat Cummins, who played his first match against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2011 while being 18 years and 193 days old. The right-handed batter had recently scored a hundred against India in a two-day practice match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra at the turn of the month.
As per George Bailey, the decision to drop Nathan McSweeney in favour of Sam Konstas was a difficult one for the Australian national selection committee, and he remarked, “We remain confident Nathan has the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level in the future.” The former Australian captain also explained how the Indian pacers have bowled well to their batters in the BGT series by saying, “It has clearly been a challenge at the top of the order for batters throughout the series and we want to provide the option of a different line-up for the next two matches.”
At the same time, George Bailey was quite excited about Sam Konstas getting called up into the Australian Test set-up for the first-time at such a young age, and pointed out, “His style of batting offers a point of difference and we look forward to watching his game develop further.” The issue of the strike-rate for Nathan McSweeney, which was just around 34, was a key factor in him being left out in favour of Sam Konstas’ inclination to put the pressure back on the bowlers with his attacking batting.
Below is the Australian squad for final two BGT Test matches versus India in Melbourne and Sydney with series level at 1-1:
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head (vc), Steve Smith (vc), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
