Australia announces its squad for Bangladesh Tests

Australia announces its squad for Bangladesh Tests: Australia announced its 15 man-squad for Qantas tour of Bangladesh which will commence from 9th October. It will be a two-match Test series. Since 2006 it is the first time that Bangladesh will be hosting a Test series against Australia. Australia named uncapped Tasmania pacer Andrew Fekete and Western Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft in the Test squad. They had performed well on the recent Australia A tour of India.

Cameron Bancroft is regarded as the next big thing in Australian cricket and on his inclusion in the Test squad; the Chairman of Selectors Rodney Marsh said that “Cameron is a player who impressed everyone on the recent A tour of India. He can bat for long periods of time and scored an outstanding 150 against India A in Chennai. On that tour he played spin well, fielded brilliantly at bat-pad and his whole demeanor was that of a player who is determined to play Test cricket.”

He further added, “He scored almost 900 first-class runs last season, he is young, hungry and he could become a very good player for us over a long period of time.”

While the Test squad also marked the returns of Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns, Glenn Maxwell and Stephen O’Keefe in the whites. Stephen O’Keefe is the second specialist spinner in the squad. On his inclusion Rodney Marsh said, “Stephen did well on the A tour. We felt he bowled exceptionally well. It’s true that Fawad (Ahmed) didn’t get many opportunities in either the West Indies or on the Ashes tour but when he did get them he didn’t bowl as well as I’m sure he would have wanted”.

The Australian side is a relatively young side. Marsh also opened up about this thing and said “The retirements of five players from the squad that went on the Ashes tour, as well as issues of injury, form and conditions have brought about a major change in the profile of the touring party from the one that toured the British Isles. But with that change comes a fantastic opportunity for all the players going to Bangladesh.”

“They are going as a young group with seven of the players aged 26 or less, and all 15 have the opportunity to kick on and, in the case of Cameron Bancroft and Andrew Fekete, kick off their Test careers and establish themselves as the core of the side for years to come,” the former Aussie Wicket-keeper batsman said.

The Australian pace duo of Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood were rested. The 67 years old said that, “Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood were not considered for the tour as, after heavy workloads over the past six months and with a significant amount of cricket to come, we wanted to make sure they are right to go at the start of our domestic summer.”

AUSTRALIA SQUAD FOR QANTAS TOUR OF BANGLADESH:

Steve Smith (c), Adam Voges (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Patrick Cummins, Andrew Fekete, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill, Stephen O’Keefe, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc.