Nathan McSweeney is set to return to Australia's Test squad for the Sri Lanka tour, ending a short stint out of the team. Mitch Marsh, on the other hand, might be on the verge of saying goodbye to Test cricket.
Nathan McSweeney is set to be recalled to Australia’s Test squad to tour Sri Lanka, less than three weeks after being dropped as a makeshift opener, while Mitch Marsh’s Test career could be at a crossroads. Australia’s selectors will name their squad for the two-Test tour on Thursday, with several fresh faces to be added to the side that played India in Sydney last week. McSweeney will be one of those, while spinners Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann are also expected to be named.
Western Australian youngster Cooper Connolly is also likely to earn selection as a middle-order option who can bowl some spin, a role that Glenn Maxwell had initially been considered as having some chance to return to. Beau Webster is the incumbent and most likely to remain at six and bowl some medium pace, but selectors could turn to Connolly if they only play two front-line spinners and want his left-arm orthodox as extra support for Nathan Lyon and whoever deputises him in the spin department. Connolly, who is still just 21, has lit up the BBL over the past two seasons since his match-winning cameo in the 2022/23 final, and has shown his wares in red-ball cricket as well, having scored 90 from 115 balls in last year’s Sheffield Shield final. But his selection, along with Webster, means there will be no room for Marsh, whose Test career could be over at 33. It’s been a sharp fall from grace in the red-ball game for Australia’s T20 captain, who only last year won the Allan Border Medal as Australia’s best overall men’s player across all three formats. McSweeney scored 72 runs at an average of 14.4 in his first three Tests against India, before being replaced by Sam Konstas for the Boxing Day Test. But the South Australian’s runs came after being handed the toughest job in cricket, asked to debut against Jasprit Bumrah after having never opened in the Sheffield Shiel
AUSTRALIA CRICKET TEST MATCHES SRI LANKA MITCHELL MARSH NATHAN MCSWEENEY
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