Nathan McSweeney of South Australia is making his international debut as Australia have announced a strong playing XI for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth. McSweeney was presented with his baggy green by former Australia allrounder and head coach Darren Lehmann.
Notably, McSweeney is the 467th cricketer to play Test cricket for Australia. He has been picked ahead of players like Sam Konstas and Marcus Harris who were in contention for the opener's role alongside veteran Usman Khawaja.
McSweeney, who plays for South Australia in the domestic circuit, has accumulated 2252 runs in 34 first-class games at an average of 38.16. He already has six centuries and 12 fifties in his first-class career so far. The right-handed batter has never opened in first-class cricket and therefore it will be a unique challenge for him to face the new ball against a potent Indian pace attack.
McSweeney was the captain of Australia A against India A in the two-match unofficial Test series and led his side to a 2-0 series win. He scored 39 and an unbeaten 88 in the first unofficial Test before scoring 14 and 25 across the two innings in the second game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Australia (Playing XI):
Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
India’s squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy:
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.
Australia squad for 1st Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs India
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc
