CA announces two separate squads: Wade dropped from South Africa Tests, Alex Carey earns call up

Matthew Wade, who was guilty of throwing his wicket away at numerous occasions in the Test series against India, has been dropped from Australia’s tour of South Africa scheduled to take place next month. At his place, wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey has been named in the 19-men squad for the tour that according to Cricket Australia is subject to  “satisfactory biosecurity arrangements” by Cricket South Africa. 

Having gone out of favour to Wade, Travis Head has retained the ‘opportunity to reclaim the number five slot.’ Other than that position, Will Pucovski has been brought back in the Test squad after getting ruled out of the final Test against India in Brisbane and selectors have put their money on the trio of David Warner, Marcus Harris and Pucovski to lead the Australian batting line up at the top of the order in South Africa.

“The squad is quite similar to that selected for the final two Tests of the recently-completed Border-Gavaskar series, with the exception of Matt Wade, who will join the Australian men’s T20I squad in New Zealand, and the addition of Alex Carey, who has been in strong form with both bat and gloves,” Hohns said.

“David Warner, Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris all opened at different stages against India and should be well-suited to the conditions in South Africa. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith were in good form during the Australian summer and Travis Head has an opportunity to reclaim the No. 5 spot.”

Mitchell Swepson has been entrusted as the backup spinner to Nathan Lyon who did not have a fruitful series against India while the trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood still make the bulk of the pace bowling unit albeit Starc is under severe pressure after a below-average series against India. James Pattinson has recovered from the injury that ruled him out of the series against India and he has made his way back to the squad to South Africa.

“Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepson offer wonderful spin bowling options for South African conditions, Similarly, we like the skill, execution and variation offered by our pace corps of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Sean Abbott and Mark Steketee,” Hohns added.

Test skipper Tim Paine has been able to save his place and reputation among the men who matter in XCricket Australia amid the call for his axe after a disastrous series loss to India. Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager, National Teams, Ben Oliver has put all his and the board’s faith in Paine's leadership and said that he has been an outstanding leader for the Aussies and that he has been on the receiving end of many harsh commentaries in the aftermath of the loss against India.

“Tim Paine has been an outstanding captain since taking over the Australian men’s Test team in incredibly difficult circumstances. Tim has the support of the team, the coach and everyone else at Cricket Australia and the result of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series have done nothing to diminish that. Tim is in career-best form with the bat and, while the series against India was not his best with the gloves by his own admission, he remains in the top echelon of wicket keepers globally. And as a leader, he has been brilliant,” Oliver said.

“To captain a squad through the many challenges presented by the pandemic - not least the unique pressures of hub life - is no easy task and Tim did that with strength, humility and good humour. After a series that attracted so much global interest, it was inevitable there’d be scrutiny. But some of the commentary surrounding Tim and his position as Test captain has been wide of the mark. We’re fortunate to have such outstanding Australian team captains in Tim, Aaron and Meg.”

Cricket Australia has selected a completely different team for the T20 series against New Zealand that will b e played concurrently with the Test series against South Africa as the board is looking to maximise its potential to help other cricketing nations amid “challenging period for international sport.”

Cricket Australia made sure that there will be no change in the T20 squad to New Zealand in case the Test series against South Africa does not go ahead as per plan. 

Selector Trevor Hohns has said that the five-match T20 series against New Zealand will provide ample opportunities to the fringe players to stake a claim in the Australia squad for the T20 world cup due to be held later this year.

“In a World Cup year, it’s exciting to select a squad that combines some of the biggest names in international T20 cricket with the best emerging players in the country. We like the balance of this squad for what should be a thrilling series against the Black Caps,” Hohns said after selecting the squad.

Selectors have rewarded Josh Philippe and Ben McDermott for their excellent performances in the Big Bash League and they believe the duo will combine with the experienced pros in Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis to make a lethal batting line up for the Aussies against the Blackcaps.

The squad is filled with enough stocks of all-rounders and selectors have gone for them in search of a balanced squad in the T20 series. Mitch Marsh, Daniel Sams and Ashton Agar along with the likes of Maxwell and Stoinis form the all-rounders' slot of the squad that can give skipper Aaron Finch a good headache heading to New Zealand.

Australia Test tour of South Africa

Tim Paine ©, Pat Cummins (vc), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

Australia T20 tour of New Zealand

Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

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