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Australia’s crop of emerging batting stars can push their cases for national selection in August, with Jake Lehmann, Travis Head, Sam Heazlett, Travis Dean, Kurtis Patterson and Matt Renshaw selected for Australia A in a glut of matches in Queensland.
Cricket Australia yesterday announced a bonanza of cricket to be played between late July and mid-September, with the ‘A’ team to play four 4-day matches plus seven 50-over games.
This off-season carnival starts on July 30, with two 4-day matches against South Africa A and finishes with two 4-day matches against a yet-to-be-named team.
In between those series is a quadrangular one-day competition between Australia A, South Africa A, the National Performance Squad and that unnamed fourth side.
That un-named team would very likely be an international ‘A’ team, probably from India, which has had off-season ‘A’ series against Australia and South Africa in both 2015 and 2014.
Last August, Australia A travelled to India for two four-day matches against the hosts’ ‘A’ team, followed by a triangular one-day series against India A and South Africa A.
Standout efforts on that tour by the likes of Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns, Ashton Agar and Steve O’Keefe helped them earn national selection in the following months.
The Australian selectors increasingly seem to be using these off-season ‘A’ carnivals as a final proving ground for players who have impressed in domestic cricket. Which is why the matches in Queensland present such big opportunities for the 24 players selected in the Australia A squad.
That extended squad includes 11 players who have represented Australia in international cricket – spinners Agar and Cameron Boyce, pacemen Pat Cummins, Joel Paris, Kane Richardson and Scott Boland, all-rounders Moises Henriques and Marcus Stoinis, and batsmen Head, Chris Lynn and Cameron Bancroft.
All of those 11 players are well in contention for national call-ups next summer across the three different formats. Even more intriguing will be the performances of the other 13 squad members who are yet to be tried at international level.
Australia finally are producing gifted young first-class batsman again, as I wrote in February.
The inexperienced Heazlett (20 years old), Renshaw (20), Lehmann (23), Dean (24) and Alex Ross (24) all are coming off breakthrough summers during which they piled on runs in the Sheffield Shield.
Fellow young guns Peter Handscomb (25), Sam Whiteman (24), Chris Lynn (26) and Patterson (23), have more first-class experience than that quartet, which is an advantage in regards to international selection.
Interestingly, the selectors included in the 24-man squad two experienced South Australian pacemen who are somewhat unfashionable in their approach and, as a result, are not as hyped as younger, quicker bowlers.
Joe Mennie and Chadd Sayers have been rewarded for their consistent effectiveness in the Shield, along with their Redbacks teammate Daniel Worrall and Victorian youngster Chris Tremain.
Troy Cooley will coach Australia A, while the NPS squad will be mentored by Graeme Hick and Ryan Harris.
Australia A squad
Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Scott Boland, Cameron Boyce, Pat Cummins, Travis Dean, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Sam Heazlett, Moises Henriques, Jake Lehmann, Chris Lynn, Joe Mennie, Kurtis Patterson, Joel Paris, Matt Renshaw, Kane Richardson, Alex Ross, Chadd Sayers, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Chris Tremain, Dan Worrall, Sam Whiteman.