New South Wales Blues' teenage sensation Sam Konstas has broken into the Australia A squad for the India A red-ball matches following twin centuries in the Sheffield Shield clash against South Australia in Sydney last week. Konstas, who has played just five first-class matches, smashed 152 and 105 in two innings as he joined a busy batting team sheet for Australia A, which includes Test hopefuls Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris apart from Beau Webster, Josh Philippe and Ollie Davies.
Matthew Renshaw and Alex Carey, who wasn't included in Australia's ODI squad for Pakistan, didn't find a place in the 17-man squad, which also had the likely Test squad member Scott Boland in the mix alongside Michael Neser, who might earn a recall to the Australian red-ball side for the five-match series against India.
The Cameron Bancroft-Marcus Harris debate will be interesting to see given that Australia is likely to end the Steve Smith opening-the-innings experiment for the India series. Since Usman Khawaja is not getting any younger, the battle in the batting department might be quite fierce.
As far as the spin department is concerned, six-Test-old Todd Murphy and Western Australia's Corey Rocchiccioli have been included in the side with a possible audition for the second spinner's slot for the away Test tour to Sri Lanka in February.
The two red-ball matches will take place in Mackay and Melbourne from October 31-November 3 and November 7-10 respectively. India A will later then play a three-day practice match against the senior Indian side from November 15-17 before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Australia A squad for India A matches: Nathan McSweeney (c), Cameron Bancroft, Scott Boland, Jordan Buckingham, Cooper Connolly, Ollie Davies, Marcus Harris, Sam Konstas, Nathan McAndrew, Michael Neser, Todd Murphy, Fergus O’Neill, Jimmy Peirson, Josh Philippe, Corey Rocchiccioli, Mark Steketee, Beau Webster
