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Australia's young opener Nathan McSweeney will miss the rest of the Border-Gavaskar Test series after making his debut during the Perth Test. In the three Test matches thus far, McSweeney has scored 10, 0, 39, 10*, 9, and 4. He gives way to Sam Konstas, a 19-year-old opener from New South Wales. Before the season, Konstas was vying for the position that David Warner had left open, but the management decided to start with McSweeney.
Konstas to create history
Teenage wonder Sam Konstas is set to become Australia's youngest Test batting debutant in over 70 years. The right-hander would be Australia's youngest Test debutant since current captain Pat Cummins, who made his debut against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2011 at the age of 18 years 193 days if he were to be given a Baggy Green cap on Boxing Day.
Konstas will enter the dressing room fresh off an undefeated 73 against India A last month and a 107 in the Prime Minister's XI's pink-ball warm-up match. He followed this up with a 27-ball 56 for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League just three days ago and an 88 for New South Wales against Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield earlier this month.
"Sam gets a call up to the Test squad for the first time. His style of batting offers a point of difference and we look forward to watching his game develop further," Chair of Selectors George Bailey said.
"We remain confident Nathan has the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level in the future. It was a difficult decision to leave him out. It has clearly been a challenge at the top of the order for batters throughout the series and we want to provide the option of a different line up for the next two matches," Bailey added.
Fast bowler Jhye Richardson has also been inlcuded now that he had bounced back from a miserable run of ailments that had plagued him since his last Test match, the 2021–22 Ashes. Beau Webster, an uncapped Tasmanian all-rounder who was added before the second Test in Adelaide, and fellow fast Sean Abbott are also back in the side for the final Test matches in Melbourne and Sydney.
Australia squad for final two Border-Gavaskar Tests
Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head (vc), Steve Smith (vc), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
