Zampa to skip, Cummins rested from T20Is, while McDermott got ignored as CA announces squads for SL tour

Cricket Australia has released the Test, ODI and T20I squads as well as an Australia-A team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. Test captain, Pat Cummins has been rested from the shortest format, while Adam Zampa will miss the entire tour owing to the birth of his first child.

As scheduled, the Aussies will be playing three T20Is, five ODIs and two Test matches in June and July. Meanwhile, the Australia-A team will cross swords with Sri Lanka-A in two 50-over games in Colombo and two four-day encounters in Hambantota during the main team’s participation in the limited-overs series. 

As per Australia men’s chairman of selectors George Bailey, the ODI and T20I squads have been picked considering the targeted skill sets. These comprise the players who form the core group in Australia’s limited-overs set-up. 

“These are very targeted to skill sets, and what we see as the bulk of the squad for the home T20 World Cup and looking further forward to the ODI World Cup,” Bailey said. 

However, Ben McDermott’s exclusion from the tour is a surprise as the talented batter performed admirably on the Pakistan tour. 

“Really happy with what he did on the Pakistan tour; he’s just been squeezed out of the Australian squads given the return of the number of players in the roles that he was playing,” the ex-Australian skipper said. 

"Australia A tour focuses on the two red-ball games. The two one-dayers were added a little bit late, later than then as we were planning, and we didn’t really want to change our focus and split that squad," the former Australian batter added. 

Talking about the Australia-A squad, the young spinners Tanveer Sangha, Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann have been included in the team as Australia plan to look at different spin options barring Nathan Lyon. 

Aaron Hardie has also secured a place in the team following his magnificent returns for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield competition.

Australia T20I Squad:- Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner, Matthew Wade (wk)

Australia ODI Squad:- Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner 

Australia Test Squad:- Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith (vice-capt), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner 

Australia-A Squad:- Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Peter Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nic Maddinson, Todd Murphy, Josh Philippe, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, Mark Steketee