Ashes 2019: Cameron Bancroft named in Australia’s 25-man probable squad

Cameron Bancroft made his comeback into Australian cricket during the 2018-19 edition of the Big Bash League (BBL). However, he is yet to play an international match after serving the nine-month suspension, which ended in December 2018. The Australian Selection Committee has now shortlisted 25 players for an all-Australian intra-squad encounter in Southampton next week which can be considered the probable squad for the Ashes 2019.

The final squad for the Ashes will be decided thereafter with the first Test scheduled to take place from August 1 at the Edgbaston in Birmingham. This is also the first time after the ball-tampering scandal that Bancroft along with David Warner and Steve Smith will be in the same squad.

The team consists of 15 players who are in England with the Australia A setup and seven of them are currently in the World Cup squad. The other players are Peter Siddle, Bancroft and Marnus Labuschagne. Even as Smith and Warner flourished in the World Cup, Bancroft has been impressive as well, plying his trade for Durham in England’s domestic cricket.

He’s scoring runs on a pretty regular basis

“Cameron was making a fair amount of headway when he played Test cricket last for Australia and that was in South Africa. What he’s done is he’s got on with business since he’s been able to play again. He’s playing with Durham in the County Championship,” national selector Trevor Hohns, was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“So he’s doing everything he possibly can to get himself back into consideration and back into the Australian squad. He’s scoring runs on a pretty regular basis so he has been included in that 25-man squad along with two others playing county cricket,” he added.

Alex Carey and Test captain Tim Paine are the other two keepers along with Bancroft. Carey has been excellent, batting lower down the order and he drew praises from the selector.

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“He’s proving himself to be a very smart cricketer. He played very well in the World Cup. Batting-wise he was very, very good. He showed calmness in a lot of diff situations. He’s been very impressive. We’ve been very impressed with his glovework for some time now so he’s progressing nicely,” Hohns said.