Rising Australian star Nathan McSweeney will open for Australia A in the second four-day match against India A, which is scheduled to start on Thursday, November 7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Notably, McSweeney is being considered as Australia's opener for the forthcoming Test series against India, which will start on November 22 and consist of five matches.
In order to make it apparent that they want to have him start the innings in the India series, the selectors have moved him up the order for the second unofficial Test. In the first game, McSweeney batted at number four led the team in scoring in both innings, and served as captain.
Bailey on McSweeny
Selection chief George Bailey has placed him in the starting lineup with Marcus Harris after being impressed by his performance in the first Test, while Sam Konstas will be moved down to number four.
"As flagged prior to the series the batting order was subject to adjustment throughout the two-match series. Nathan McSweeney will open the batting and Sam Konstas will move to number 4," Bailey was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Bailey went on to say that the second Test will be a chance to gather last-minute information for the India series squad.
"We will use the opportunity this week to gather our final information before the announcement of the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Series following the Australia A match," he added.
McSweeny's astonishing performance
McSweeney has amassed 291 runs from four innings at an average of 97 in the current Sheffield Shield campaign, including a century and two fifties. Leading the Australia A team in their four-day encounter against India A, McSweeney helped his team chase down 226 in the fourth innings and win by seven wickets with scores of 39 and an undefeated 88* in the second innings.
He has amassed 541 runs at an average of 90.16 in red-ball cricket this season. With six hundreds and eleven fifties, the 25-year-old has amassed 2086 runs at an average of 37.25 from 32 first-class games thus far. He will be keen to maintain his strong play in order to strengthen his case for being included in the Australian Test squad.
Australia A XI for MCG tour match: Nathan McSweeney (c), Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, Sam Konstas, Ollie Davies, Beau Webster, Jimmy Peirson (wk), Michael Neser, Nathan McAndrew, Scott Boland, Corey Rocchiccioli
