Australia will play three T20Is against Scotland and England from early September and the squad reflects the start of the transition from the group that exited the recent T20 World Cup in the Super Eights. The ODI squad is more stable with an eye on next year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
“We haven’t had that many bolters for a little while,” national selector George Bailey said. “He’s an exciting young talent. Hasn’t played a great many games yet, but we really like his versatility, his work through the middle order for the Scorchers has been really impressive. Handy left-arm spin as well which as a secondary skill is something we are really keen to keep exploring and see where that goes with his cricket.”
Cummins is currently among the group of Australians taking part in MLC but Bailey said missing this tour had been in the planning for around 12 months with an eye on a condensed schedule that comes once the home summer begins.
“He’s got a couple of things he wants to work on physically,” Bailey explained. “He’s had a lot of cricket over the past period and this is an opportunity to get on top of those and set him up for the next period of time, it’s more a management of that. The MLC opportunity came reasonably late, [and] as far as the plan went it’s an extra 18 or 19 days that he’s up for, [so] it doesn’t fundamentally change the plan we had for him.”
From those who featured in West Indies last month, Ashton Agar and Matthew Wade have been dropped from the T20I squad while David Warner has retired.
Fraser-McGurk’s inclusion had been expected and he now has the chance to establish himself as Warner’s successor at the top of the order in both limited-overs formats. He has yet to make his T20I debut but played two ODIs against West Indies last season.
Alex Carey is back in the ODI squad as Inglis’ understudy having lost his place in the XI during last year’s World Cup.
The T20Is against Scotland, which replace the tour of Ireland which was cancelled by the hosts for financial reasons, take place on September 4, 6 and 7. Three T20Is against England follow on September 11, 13 and 15 followed by the five ODIs.
Australia T20I squad vs Scotland and England
Mitchell Marsh (capt), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Spencer Johnson, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Australia ODI squad vs England
Mitchell Marsh (capt), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis (wk), Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa