Stephen O’Keefe will stand down as NSW captain for the remainder of the cricket season to focus on earning a recall to the national team.
Ben Rohrer, who wasn’t selected by the Blues in the first half of the Sheffield Shield season, will lead the side for their remaining two first-class matches in 2012-13.
O’Keefe had skippered the side since taking over from Simon Katich in October 2011.
The spinning allrounder has snaffled 17 wickets at an average of 26.76 this Shield season and was unlucky not to be picked in Australia’s Test squad for the current tour of India.
Pacemen Josh Hazlewood and Gurinder Sandhu, who both recently took part in Australia A’s home one-day series against England Lions, will also look to build their case for national selection when NSW takes on Victoria this week.
Sandhu, who took 3-36 against the Lions last Monday, will make his first-class debut if selected in the MCG clash that starts on Thursday.
Hazlewood is desperate to impress ahead of back-to-back Ashes series after injury denied him a chance to press for higher honours this season.
The 22-year-old joined the Test squad in Perth last year, but selectors opted to instead hand a debut to Victoria’s John Hastings in the series-deciding loss to South Africa.
A foot injury then sidelined him for over a month.
Hazlewood debuted for NSW at the age of 17 and played an ODI game for Australia at 19 – before fellow upstart quicks James Pattinson and Pat Cummins burst onto the scene.
NSW: Ben Rohrer (capt), Trent Copeland, Doug Bollinger, David Dawson, Brad Haddin, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Henry, Nic Maddinson, Peter Nevill, Steve O’Keefe, Gurinder Sandhu, Adam Zampa (12th man yet to be named)
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