Australia will lock horns against Bangladesh in the first Test of the two-match series starting from August 13, Thursday. The Aussies have announced the playing XI for the first, in which Scott Boland was not picked despite appearing in Ashes.
The Pat Cummins-led side are set to stick with their established pace attack for the first Test against Bangladesh in Darwin, with Josh Hazlewood retaining his place over Boland. The decision comes despite Boland making a strong impression with the ball during the recently concluded Ashes series.
Tough call for Pat Cummins
Australia's bowling unit will also see some senior stars returning after a long time. Hazlewood has not played for the national side since October last year after an injury ruled him out of the entire Ashes series. Cummins has also limited red-ball action since the West Indies tour, featuring in only one Test against England. However, Nathan Lyon is back in contention after a hamstring injury.
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While opening up on dropping Boland from the playing XI for the first Test, the Aussie skipper admitted that it was a tough call for him to take given the speedster's brilliant performance in the recent outings. The Aussie Test skipper revealed that certain team combinations forced Boland to sit out, otherwise there is no doubt on his potential and he will be there in some time.
"I think we were pretty certain we wanted Lyno [Lyon] inside, so just kind of working out what the make-up of the quicks were," Cummins said.
"So went with Joshy, [we] obviously know Scotty's class. It's always a pretty tight call. I think it's one of those ones where there's not much you can say to Scotty other than obviously there's a lot of cricket coming up, but he knows his worth and how good he is, and I'm sure he'll be out there at some point pretty soon," added Cummins.
Australia's playing XI for 1st Test vs Bangladesh:
Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Cameroon Green, Alex Carey (WK), Beau Webster, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (C), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood