Australian squad announced for first 2 Tests against New Zealand

Australian squad announced for first 2 Tests against New Zealand: Cricket Australia’s national selection panel have announced a 12-man Australian squad for the first two Test matches against New Zealand.

There were two surprise additions from the selection panel as they called in the Queensland opening pair of Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns. Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft have been left out of the squad.

National selector Rod Marsh after announcing the squad said that, “We will need to play at our best to beat a very talented New Zealand side, but we think this squad has the goods to do it and also provides an opportunity for some exciting younger players to make their mark in the Test arena.

Usman is a very good player of fast-bowling and is a fine technician; we feel he will make a really solid contribution towards our batting this series,” Marsh said.

“Joe thoroughly deserves his chance and was unlucky to miss out on the West Indies and Ashes tours off the back of two decent performances in his last Test match for Australia in Sydney. He also put in terrific performances during the recent Australia A Series in India.”

Adam Voges and Mitchell Marsh too retained their spots in the side. Australia and New Zealand will be playing three Test matches starting from 5 November. The first Test will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane.

This Test series also includes the first day-night Test match in the history of cricket, which will be the third and final Test of the series and it will be played at the Adelaide with the pink ball.

Australian squad for the first two Test matches against New Zealand:

Steve Smith (C), David Warner, Joe Burns, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges.