Cricket Australia (CA) on November 10 announced a 13-man squad for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against India. Australia have confirmed A team's captain Nathan McSweeney as the new opener who will walk out to bat with veteran Usman Khawaja. Wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis has been added to the Pat Cummins-led squad as well as a reserve batter.
Chief selector George Bailey said that McSweeney's performances in recent times paved the way for his selection. He also said that Inglis deserves to be in the camp for his run in the domestic Sheffield Shield competition.
"Nathan has displayed the attributes we believe will equip him well for Test cricket along with a strong recent record in domestic cricket," Bailey said in a media release.
"His performances for South Australia and Australia A weighed in his favour and supports our view he is ready for the opportunity at Test level.
"Similarly, Josh has been in great touch in the Sheffield Shield competition and deserves his place in his first Test squad."
The first Test will be played at Perth Stadium and commence on November 22.
McSweeney and Inglis' first-class numbers -
Both batters are yet to make their respective Test debuts. McSweeney has scored 2,252 runs from 34 games at an average of 38.16 including six centuries and 12 fifties. He has been in good for of late. He scored a match-winning unbeaten 88 against India A in the first game of the series.
Inglis has played 25 ODIs and 26 T20Is. In red-ball cricket, he has scored 3,029 runs from 57 games at an average of 36.49 including seven centuries and 12 fifties.
Australia's squad for Perth Test
Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc
India's 18-man Test squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
