Australia vs New Zealand 2019-20: Australia announce squad for three-match Test series at home
After an impressive Ashes tour and a comfortable 2-0 series win over Pakistan, the Australian squad for the much-anticipated three-match Test series against New Zealand at home has been announced. The Aussie selectors went with 13 of the 14 members of the Test squad who were part of the Pakistan series, with Cameron Bancroft being the unlucky batsman to miss out.
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Australia’s chairman of selectors, Trevor Hohns sounded optimistic about the core group of players that Australia were looking at. He was impressed by the clinical performances against Pakistan but thinks that there is still room for improvement. He said:
“As we said prior to the Pakistan series we are striving to maintain a core group of players… The performance of the team against Pakistan was very impressive across all areas, while there is always some room to improve.”
Hohns said that Cameron Bancroft will continue as a reserve batsman and would come in as a standby player in case of an injury.
"We are backing the current batting line-up to continue their form across the next three Tests. Whilst not a part of this squad, Cameron Bancroft remains one of the standby players. Similarly, depending on conditions, we reserve the right to add a player to the squad at any time during the Series.”
"Michael [Neser] will play for Queensland against New South Wales in the Marsh Sheffield Shield game at the SCG, as James [Pattinson] did last week for Victoria."
Australia Squad
Tim Paine (captain), Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins (vice-captain), Josh Hazelwood, Travis Head (vice-captain), Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson.