Five new caps in Australian Test squad to play Pakistan in UAE
BATSMEN Aaron Finch and Travis Head and paceman Brendan Doggett are among five uncapped Test players included in Australia’s squad for a two-match series against Pakistan but there are some big omissions.
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QUEENSLANDERS Marnus Labuschagne and Brendan Doggett have emerged as the great bolters named in a 15-man Australian Test squad which also includes Victorian Aaron Finch as new coach Justin Langer embarks on his greatest cricketing challenge.
Langer will take five uncapped Test players to Pakistan for the two match series, Australia’s first since the ball tampering scandal in South Africa, minus two of the greatest players in the modern era as the contentious suspension of Steve Smith and David Warner really starts to bite.
Selectors opted not to name a vice-captain at this stage, with all-rounder Mitch Marsh, currently captain of the Australia A team in India, in the frame to take that role.
The series against Pakistan looms as a chance to re-build a fractured team, but could also prove a stop-gap measure until Smith and Warner are allowed to return in time for next year’s Ashes in England.
Incumbents Matt Renshaw and Usman Khawaja have held on to their spots after being sent to India with the Australia A squad for extra work.
Labuschagne, Travis Head and Finch will fight for the other batting spots after being named for their maiden Test tours, with Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb dropped from the group that went to South Africa.
Finch, 31, is in line for his Test debut after carving out some staggering numbers in white ball cricket for Australia and English county team Surrey, as well as more than 1000 runs in the past two Sheffield Shield seasons.
Late bloomers have been successful for the Aussie Test team, including Mike Hussey who played the first of his 79 Tests six months after he turned 30.
Aussie Test legend Ricky Ponting gave Finch his approval having worked closely with him as an assistant coach for the T20 and ODI sides.
“I’ve seen Finchy up close and personal over the last seven or eight months during the T20 tri-series last summer and then the ODIs in England. There’s no doubt he’s a different player than even he was 12 months ago,” Ponting told cricket.com.
“His four-day cricket for Victoria has probably been better than anyone else in the country, probably apart from (Matthew) Renshaw.”
South African born Labuschagne, who spoke more Afrikaans than English when his family moved to Queensland, has made just over 2100 runs in his 34 Sheffield Shield games for the Bulls, including 795 last summer, the second most in the competition behind Renshaw (804).
Head, the South Australian captain, has already played 39 ODIs for Australia and has nearly 4500 first class runs, including seven hundreds. He also made a century for Australia A during the one-day series last month.
Without pace spearheads Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, veteran Siddle, Michael Neser and Doggett have been called-upon to help carry the fast bowling load with Mitchell Starc.
Siddle, 33, played the last of his 62 Tests in Perth in 2016 but has been resurgent in English county cricket, taking 34 wickets at 15.32, and said he had many conversations with new coach Langer about where he stands.
“I spoke to ‘JL’ (Langer) a fair bit in the time I was away about my own cricket, and then also about … the Australia A tour and bowling and preparing over in Asia,” Siddle said on RSN on Tuesday.
“It’s all been positive. He’s said to me that no matter how old you are, every game counts. That’s a good way to look at it and it’s the way I’ve been looking at things over the last few months.
Victorian spinner Jon Holland kept his place in the squad, having toured South Africa earlier this year, and looks certain to add to his two Test caps to share the spin duties with Nathan Lyon after taking nine wickets against India A last week, including 6-81 in the second innings.
Lyon endured a horror series the last time he played in the UAE, returning figures of 3/422 in 2014 as the Aussies were smashed in a two-Test series against Pakistan, but returns a different bowler, with 306 Test wickets and on the verge of entering the all-time Australian top five.
Pakistan have been installed as $1.90 TAB favourites to win the first Test in Dubai, with the Aussies $2.35 outsiders.
Australia Test squad : Tim Paine (c), Ashton Agar, Brendan Doggett*, Aaron Finch*, Travis Head*, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne*, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser*, Matt Renshaw, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc.
* denotes new cap
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Originally published as Five new caps in Australian Test squad to play Pakistan in UAE