One of the premier batters for Australia in the red-ball format, Marnus Labuschagne, has been rewarded despite his poor returns in the recent two-match Test series against West Indies at home.
Labuschagne has been announced to lead his domestic side Queensland against South Australia in a Marsh One-Day Cup game at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide on Wednesday (February 14).
In what is going to be a dead rubber in the context of the tournament, Labuscahgne will be leading Queensland for the first time at the senior level in the absence of regular captain Usman Khawaja and vice-captain of Queensland Jimmy Pierson.
Notably, Labuschagne has not had the taste of captaincy since his U19 days and therefore will be donning the captain's hat for the first time in almost a decade.
Though Travis Head was recently appointed as the vice-captain of Australia's Test side, Labuschagne can be viewed as a potential leader in the days to come.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the game between Queensland and South Australia won't matter much as they are out of the race for the finals.
Victoria and New South Wales will encounter each other in the final round at the North Sydney Oval on February 14 and the winner of the fixture will host the summit clash on February 25.
Queensland squad:
Marnus Labuschagne (c), Max Bryant, Hugo Burdon, Jack Clayton, Matthew Kuhnemann, Ben McDermott, Dylan McLachlan (wk), Matthew Renshaw, Gurinder Sandhu, Connor Sully, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth
South Australia squad:
Nathan McSweeney (c), Jordan Buckingham, Alex Carey, Harry Conway, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Josh Kann, Thomas Kelly, Jake Lehmann, Ben Manenti, Nathan McAndrew, Harry Nielsen (wk), Lloyd Pope, Henry Thornton, Jake Winter
