Australia has announced their team for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour. This time, Steve Smith is going to lead the team in the absence of Pat Cummins.
Cummins is out of the team on paternity leave. He is also looking after an ankle issue which was “managed through summer,” said Cricket Australia. Josh Hazlewood is still not selected due to the injury that he sustained earlier. That injury kept him out of the India series as well. Apart from that, Mitchell Marsh has been dropped from the team.
The team selected for the Sri Lanka tour only has three frontline seamers, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, and Sean Abbott. They have added Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann as another spinner apart from Nathon Lyon.
Nathon Mcsweeny, who was dropped from the team in favor of Sam Konstas, was able to regain his spot in the 16-man squad named for the two-test series in Sri Lanka. Another batsman, Cooper Connolly, who can also bowl some orthodox spin has been selected for the first time.
The chief selector of the Australian national team said, “Sri Lanka is a challenging and exciting place to tour given the different conditions players may be presented with. This squad provides several ways to structure the XI depending on what type of wickets we may encounter in each match. We are excited about the opportunity ahead for the squad members who are at the start of their Test careers to continue to grow their games in subcontinent conditions where we have a number of important tours in coming years.”
Here is the complete squad of Australia for the upcoming two-test match series with Sri Lanka.
Squad: Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Nathan McSweeney, Beau Webster, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Cooper Connolly, Todd Murphy, Matt Kuhnemann, Sean Abbott, Scott Boland