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Despite being called up to the Australian one-day international squad, Usman Khawaja has not been named to play against New Zealand in the first match of the three-game series, with Shaun Marsh retaining his spot in the team.
“Shaun has been in the squad, he played well in Australia and I think he deserves the first opportunity, so he’s going to get that out here tomorrow,” Steve Smith said.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for Khawaja, with Smith confirming the in-form bat will get an opportunity during the three-match ODI series.
“He’ll play one of the (three ODI) games at least,” Smith said.
“He does need a hit going into what is a big Test series and he’s batting extremely well…
“No doubt he’d (Khawaja) be frustrated. He’s hitting the ball extremely well. But the one-day side is a tough side to break into.
“We’re the current world champions. We’ve been playing some very good one-day cricket and the batters have been scoring lots of runs. We scored 300 on every occasion in the recent one-day series (against India) at home.”
Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum said: “I was a little bit surprised about it (Khawaja’s omission) to be honest. He’s been the form batsman in the Australian summer, across all different forms of the game as well.
“He’s in some incredible touch. The guys who has replaces him, Shaun Marsh, is a very, very good player as well. We saw that when we played against them (Australia) in Adelaide.
“The thing about Australia is that they’ve got so much depth they can afford to have guys missing from their line-up but they’re going to be replaced by guys who are equally as strong.”
Joining Khawaja in the stands from Australia’s 14-man squad will be Scott Boland and rookie leg-spinner Adam Zampa, meaning Glenn Maxwell will be the side’s go-to spin option.
Australia
David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Steve Smith, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, James Faulkner, John Hastings, Kane Richardson, Josh Hazlewood
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