Khawaja to captain Cricket Australia XI against New Zealand

Burns has scored 3 50s in his last 3 innings. The wildly talented Usman Khawaja who scored 1 50 in that period should be a walk up start shouldn't he?

Don't read anything into the PM team selection, it was based on picking from the two sides who had missed the matador cup finals already (WA and QLD)

Burns has done nothing since his taste of test cricket last year and failed miserably in county cricket. He looks out of form and should be nowhere near the squad. Voges earned his spot on a mountain of runs at the expense of S Marsh. He won us the WI test but was disappointing in the Ashes obviously. However obvious replacements with recent form are only S Marsh and Maxwell, neither of which are good enough/ready at this point. At this point finding someone to bat at two and three (assuming smith wants to move down to 4 as indicated) is much more critical than replacing voges.

We have 'the experienced one' in Voges. He deserves a spot. The other spots should go to up and comers.

On current form and long-term potential, Bancroft must surely open. He has been impressive, especially in test conditions, concentrating for long periods under pressure. Unfortunately, the selectors do often seem to play favourites and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they come up with someone like S Marsh and go on about "a number of outstanding candidates" / "wanting to see more results in the Shield" / "we need Experience" / "recent ODI form". The spots at 3/4 and 5 are a bit of a toss-up, Burns is only viable at 5 or 6 with his dodgy technique and it's hard to tell where Voges and Khawaja stand with the selectors. I'd put Khawaja at 3 and leave Voges at 5. Also I'm very surprised that the Don hasn't lept to the defence of his beloved Marsh brothers yet. It's been a good few hours already!

I reckon you should watch some domestic cricket before ranting. Voges has for a large part of his career maintained a FC career average of 40+

Sam Whiteman is back on the CA radar. Is the only long term test keeper prospect among all the candidates imv. Pleased to see Behrendorff also named. Mark Waugh said he was close to national selection before he missed the whole of last season due to back injury. Will not please some on this forum. But looks like Ashton Agar is now the preferred second spinner to SOK. Did not take long for the giant Bulls quick Billy Stanlake to impress. This kid is one for the future. Siddle got a courtesy call. Should not feature in the Black Cap series unless there is an injury. Yet again I could be wrong. Seems he is back in favor.

No, watching today it's Stanlake who hops into his delivery.

Cricket Australia continually dangling carrots in front of Khawaja and then screwing him over! He's a better man than I am! I would of dropped my bundle by now!

Agree on Uzzie. One opening spot might be the only opening in my mind. Interesting point about Voges though. He'll want to perform in these games or you might see S. Marsh take his spot. If he does play, I'd give him the NZ series and if he fails, replace him with a youngster (Burns) for the Windies. My question: is the above order the order they will play in? Because it's odd. Also, I like what I've seen of Stanlake and his QLD teammate Steketee who's playing in the PM XI, but one of them, and I think it's Steketee, seems to have a little hop going into his delivery stride. I'm not big on my bowling actions, maybe someone can help, but I suspect it might lead to future injuries because it looks awkward.

Thanks for that Brett, I was wondering. Are you saying because you're involved?

Just for people interested, the PMs XI game on Friday will be covered on 666 ABC Canberra, and also on Grandstand Digital and via the Cricket Australia app..

What worries me about Rod Marsh is his loyalty to Western Australia. In fact I often wonder if he is in fact our fellow resident forumer Don. His comment about him being excited about the Marsh brothers and Sam Whiteman, but mentioning no one else troubles me about his partiality. I'm not suggesting they shouldnt be in the side and certainly Whiteman has a lot to offer and we are still to see young Mitch show his batting wares, but what of the other non Western Australians in the side. I am surprised he didnt mention Bancroft, who looks potentially better than the other three mentioned. It also worries me that players like Stoinis,Hanscomb, Head and especially Maddinson etc have been ignored. Meanwhile apparently Burns and Khawaja are there just to make up the numbers I suppose in Rodney's eyes.

Hopefully this game gives Joe Burns an opportunity down the order instead of the opening role thrust on him as a matter of convenience by Qld and then Australia. He's the perfect number 5 and has more appeal than the aging Adam Voges who was lucky to get an ashes tour on the back of one good Aussie season in the shield and one dayers. Voges had 15 years to earn that place and never aimed up, I reckon he went to England because the selectors were(1) worried about fragility of the younger guys (2) headed by Rod Marsh of WA.

You would think Khawaja is a lock and Marsh/Bancroft/Burns are fighting for the opener slot. My question is how many tests we give Voges this summer if he doesn't perform.