Melbourne: Wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade has been excluded from Australia Test squad for the South Africa tour and has been replaced by Alex Carey for the three-match series. Wade will, instead, travel with the T20I side to New Zealand for the five-match series with Australia playing two tours at the same time.
The Australia squad is slated to leave for New Zealand on February 7 while the South Africa tour “remains subject to satisfactory bio-security arrangements”. Head coach Justin Langer will travel with the Test side to South Africa, while the T20I side will be coached by Andrew McDonald in New Zealand.
The T20Is will be played on February 22, 25, March 3, 5 and 8.
“The Australian men’s T20I tour of New Zealand and Australian men’s Test tour of South Africa are important to both host boards and we have been working constructively with their respective management teams on the planning for both tours,” Ben Oliver, Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager, National Teams, said.
“We do not envisage replicating concurrent Australian men’s tours in the future, but we appreciate the need to do so now to assist our friends around the world during this challenging period for international sport and given the additional time requirements of mandatory quarantine periods,” he added.
In four Tests against India, Wade scored just 173 runs in the eight innings he played.
“The squad is quite similar to that selected for the final two Tests of the recently-completed Border-Gavaskar series, with the exception of Matt Wade, who will join the Australian men’s T20I squad in New Zealand, and the addition of Alex Carey, who has been in strong form with both bat and gloves,” national selector Trevor Hohns said.
“David Warner, Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris all opened at different stages against India and should be well-suited to the conditions in South Africa. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith were in good form during the Australian summer and Travis Head has an opportunity to reclaim the No. 5 spot.
“We’ve been very impressed with Cameron Green’s first foray into Test cricket as an all-rounder batting at No. 6 and we have great depth with the in-form Moises Henriques also in the squad. Tim Paine was excellent at No.7 against India and as a batsman, wicketkeeper and captain still has much to offer in the Test arena,” he added.
The selectors have also included 19-year-old Tanveer Sangha who came out with an impressive performance with Sydney Thunder, where he has 21 wickets from 14 games in the ongoing Big Bash.
“The batting line-up will be strengthened by the inclusion of Matt Wade, who joins fellow experienced internationals such as Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, D’Arcy Short and Ashton Turner,” Hohns said.
“Adam Zampa has developed into one of the best spinners in international white-ball cricket and we have been most impressed by Tanveer Sangha, who has been brilliant throughout the pathways and with the Sydney Thunder this season.
“We are similarly buoyant about our fast bowling stocks. Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith and Jason Behrendorff have all impressed during the BBL and Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye are proven performers on the international stage,” he added.
Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Moises Henriques, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
T20I squad: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D’Archy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.