Australia have confirmed Kurtis Patterson and Jhye Richardson will debut against Sri Lanka at the Gabba, with Joe Burns to open alongside Marcus Harris.
Desperate to avoid their least successful home summer in a-quarter-of-a-century, Australia have recalled Joe Burns to open alongside Marcus Harris in the pink-ball series opener in Brisbane.
Young prodigy Will Pucovski is the hard luck story after being overlooked for his maiden baggy green, while Matt Renshaw also misses out.
Usman Khawaja will shift back to No.3 after opening at the SCG against India, while Marnus Labuschagne has held his spot but moves to No.4 before new vice-captain Travis Head and Patterson round out the top six.
Richardson will then be Australia’s third pace option in place of the injured Josh Hazlewood, beating out veteran Peter Siddle to become one of five players aged 25 or younger heralding a new era.
“If the (rookies) do (play), I have real confidence in those guys,” captain Tim Paine said before the side was announced after training on Wednesday.
“Not just on their cricket but I think all the guys, all the young guys who have the potential to make their debut this Test, will handle the occasion really well.”
Patterson will become Australian Test cricketer No.457, after being called into the squad late on the back of twin centuries in a pink-ball tour match against Sri Lanka in Hobart last week.
The NSW left-hander has been creating waves since he became the youngest player to score a Sheffield Shield century on debut aged 18 in 2011, and was close to making the side in 2016.
Meanwhile Richardson will follow with baggy green No.458, becoming the seventh player to debut in the past 12 months.
Aged 22, he’s taken 49 first-class wickets at 23.24 and has already played seven one-dayers and seven Twenty20s for Australia.
The mass changes come with Australia having played five series across all three formats without a series win at home.
The last time the national team went through a home summer without lifting a trophy was in 1992-93, when the all-conquering West Indies beat them in both the Tests and a triangular one-day series.
“I think when you’re not performing as well as you would like as a group there are going to be changes and that’s just the fact of the game we’re in,” Paine said.
“We’ve got to perform better and if we perform better we’ll have a more consistent side.
“We want to win (against Sri Lanka), not looking further than that, play better than we did against India, score more hundreds.”
Australia (squad)
Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Kurtis Patterson, Tim Paine (capt), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon.
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
Surely if Marnus has to play he squeezes in at 6? Patterson at 4 looks good.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Not surprised that Pucoski and Renshaw missed out. Renshaw is out of form, while with Pucoski, it's a little complicated. Patterson getting the twin tons got him over the line. While with Labuschagne, he played in the final test against India and only had one innings, which he made 38, and in the tour game, he got a fifty. I would not have picked Labuschagne in the first place, but since his recall against India, he hasn't done much wrong. Pucoski will get his chance. Getting a few more shield games under his belt before he debuts for Australia will still be beneficial to him. Very happy for Richardson. Can't wait to see him unleash.
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Yep spot on. If you look at both Labuschagne and Patterson, Patterson is perfectly suited to the top of the order and Labuschagne is suited to the mid order. To be honest it’s so obvious to see. I seriously worry about the decisions these blokes make. The cricket smarts are just not there. Burns for instance is highly unlikely to play in the ashes with Warner back. The top 4 will be pretty settled. But no 5 and 6 are completely open. Why not give Pucovski a look and see if he’d be ready for the ashes. As it stands now you can’t debut him for an ashes test.
Gone for 4
Guest
Pretty disappointing that Pucovski misses out. Considering all the talk about him and it looked pretty certain that his was going to debut the selectors have done a massive back flip.
Adsa
Roar Rookie
Not a bad side all things considered. Patterson should elevated to four, batting him at 6 is a bit of a waste of his technique. Labuschagne would be a better option at 6.