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With talks around the five-match Test series, Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) intensifying, Chair of Australia’s men’s selection committee George Bailey opened up on the possibility of Josh Inglis opening the innings for the hosts. It is to be noted that India is set to travel to Australia for the five-match Test series, starting from November 22 with the first Test at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
As the series comes closer, there have been talks who could replace retired David Warner in the longest format of the game in the Aussies colours. However, the chief selector denied rumours of wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis opening the innings in the upcoming series.
Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris, Matt Renshaw, and Sam Konstas vying for top spot for BGT
Notably the talks around the opening spot comes with Warner retiring from international cricket and Steve Smith opting to return to number four position. Moreover, all-rounder Cameron Green’s injury has added more worries into the side. With all these back-to-back blows, the opening slot is still vacant with well-known domestic stars in the fringe including the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris, Matt Renshaw, and the U19 star, Sam Konstas.
With the Australia side looking at these options, Bailey recently ended the speculation of Josh Inglis joining Usman Khawaja in the opening slot. "There is no doubt the form is really fantastic at the moment - you have seen when he has been playing [for] Australia and then the ability to jump back into domestic cricket and dominate as he has, has been fantastic," Bailey said as quoted by Sydney Herald.
"So [in] different series at different times of the year he would firmly come into the mix purely as a batter, and if the right opportunity opened up throughout the summer in the spots we think he is most capable of performing, then he would be firmly in that conversation as well," he added. With Nathan McSweeney, Konstas and Harris in contention to be slotted into two vacant batting slots, Bailey said, "We have got three players who open the batting for their state and one player who bats three for their state, so four top-order batters to try to fit into three, so there will be some adjustments there."
Speaking the wicketkeeper-batter, Inglis has participated in eight first-class games since the beginning of 2023. He has amassed 736 runs at an average of 61.33 in 14 innings, including four hundreds and a strike rate of 76.03.
